Naked ladies covered in sludge ... no, it’s not something from my bucket list, rather a reflection of the vagaries of war. I'll get to that in a minute.
The Naked Ladies are a statue complex on a rockery and water cascade in the Riverside Gardens of York House, Twickenham, set yards from the Thames on the north bank. Larger than life, the statues are made from white Carrara marble and depict eight Oceanids and a pair of aquatic horses.
The statues were amongst the property of the celebrated fraudster Whitaker Wright, who committed suicide by ingestion of a cyanide capsule upon a being convicted of fraud. It’s uncertain where he acquired the statues, or who carved them, and after his death the Naked Ladies were sold, along with much of his collection from Witley Park.
The buyer of the statues was Sir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, who had bought York House from the Duc d’Orléans in 1906. By the end of 1909 he had redesigned the Riverside Gardens of the house in the Italian style. The statues were installed there, set in a rockery behind a pond, with trees and security fencing restricting side and rear views. Sir Ratan enjoyed sharing his gardens, and for several years was a noted host for London High Society, with King George V among the guests at his garden parties.
The statues came into the de facto possession of Twickenham Council in 1924 when they purchased York House for their new town hall. They had been left behind by the previous owners, as they had been unable to find a buyer at auction.
To the sludge. The Naked Ladies survived WWII, though during the blitz there was concern that moonlight reflecting on their white bodies would give a navigation mark to the Luftwaffe. Consequently, as part of London's blackout measures, the statues were covered temporarily with grey sludge.
As a result of local government reorganisation in the 1960s, Twickenham became part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The town hall remains at York House, and the gardens continue to be open to the public. In 1983 the statues were protected with a Grade II listing by English Heritage. As well as sludge removal after the war, they have gone through at least one major restoration and routinely receive sadly much-needed maintenance to remove graffiti and make repairs, including replacing lost or broken fingers, pearls and horses hooves.
York House
(The Riverside Gardens and statues are a hundred yards or so behind us)
Red arrow: The Naked Ladies
Speaking of which …
A local brew by Twickenham Fine Ales marks the statues with their best selling flagship beer ...
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