Monument at the Elephant

When I was child I remember being taken by my Mum and Nan to see the new shopping centre at the Elephant and Castle.

I'm not sure why we went, though I think there was something about going to the Green Shied Stamp shop for something, but while we were there we went up to the floor where the actual Elephant and Castle stood inside in the middle of the cross made by the walkways. In those days it was also not painted, just stone.

Well for us living in Peckham there wasn't much to draw us all the way to the Elephant, probably mainly the aforesaid Green Shield Stamp shop, so I never knew it that well until I stated work, when I used to travel through there regularly to get to Westminster or Whitehall on the bus, or get off and onto the underground to go further afield.

It was then I first really took more notice of the giant silver cuboid in the middle of the roundabout. It was quite impressive, but what was it?

It was years later I found out, first that it was a large power substation and later still that it was in that silver box (rather than buried underground as the one in Leicester Square is) because is also has a second purpose – as a memorial.

However, getting back to my Mum a story she told was of her Headmaster, one Mr Crickmer who with an interest in local history told the kids in Scarsdale Road school, about the local area, including one story about Michael Faraday. So what is his story and why is a sub station on a South London roundabout a memorial to him?

Well Michael Faraday was born nearby in 1791 to a Blacksmith and his wife, but was apprenticed not into that trade, but as a bookbinder. Reading gave him an interest in science and soon he applied to Humphrey Davy (inventor of the Davy Lamp) as an assistant. It was here that he got his scientific education and by 1821 he was experimenting with electromagnetism! Working with Davy and William Hyde Wollaston who had both worked on electrical principles and theory, Faraday, went on to build two devices to produce what he called electromagnetic rotation: a continuous circular motion from the circular magnetic force around a wire and a wire extending into a pool of mercury with a magnet placed inside. This work led eventually both to the Electric Motor and later the dynamo.

Faraday also wrapped two insulated coils of wire around an iron ring, and found that, upon passing a current through one coil, a momentary current was induced in the other coil. This is of course the basis of a transformer, the underlying technology used in power transmission, and therefore in power substations. Faraday's iron ring-coil apparatus is still on display at the Royal Institution.

These brief notes can of course not possibly do justice to this man who was responsible for so much more than just some electrical work, but gives a flavour of why this man's memory is commemorated by of all things a power substation. For more information on Faraday's life click here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday

Back at the memorial it is said that when this twenty three metres wide and six metres tall cuboid was built in 1961 nobody really knew what it was. Well 30 odd years later the same was still true as in June 1995, the Evening Standard ran a story with a picture of the box headlined “But what on earth is it?” and this does make me wonder if actually the plan was to save burying the station and it was only later that someone had the wheeze of calling it a memorial.

However I've also read that its architect, Rodney Gordon, intended his design to embody the visionary credentials of our hero. It was originally to be a box of glass which would allow the public to see the transformer which sits within, but fears of vandalism scuppered this idea and with it the clearest link between Faraday’s work and the modern world, so it was that steel replaced glass as the primary construction material.

In 1996 Blue Peter held a competition for children to design a new lighting scheme for the site and in the same year the structure was given grade II listed status. It even has a long dedication in a series if stone plaques set into the ground in front of it – they read ...

“This Stainless Steel Sculpture commemorates MICHAEL FARADAY(1791 – 1867) English Chemist and Physicist Known For His Research Into Electricity and Magnetism Who Lived Locally”

The cuboid's 728 stainless steel panels have stayed very shiny at least from a distance, so it is a survivor and with its listed status will presumably be included into the redevelopment of the site, though, like the Elephant and Castle statue I originally saw in the middle of Shopping Centre, it might get moved around. After all the elephant stood originally on the top of a pub from which the area got its name, and now stands looking at the Metropolitan Tabernacle and has , in it's time been painted bright horrendous pink!

Faraday also moved around of course, and while born locally, died at his Grace and Favour house at Hampton Court on 25 August 1867.

He had previously turned down burial in Westminster Abbey, but he has a memorial plaque there, near Isaac Newton's tomb, but Faraday was actually interred in the dissenters' (non-Anglican) section of Highgate Cemetery.

So next time you're sitting in traffic around the Elephant roundabout spare a thought for the poor blacksmith's son turned good who's work not only helped start you vehicle it also helps light your home.

Laurie Smith