Monument to William Pitt the Younger, by James Bubb (1781-1853). Installed in 1813, with an inscription provided by George Canning. Marble. 7m x 4.3m. Location: Guildhall, City of London. [Click on the images for larger pictures.]
Bubb is little known now, despite having created a good deal of architectural sculpture, partly because much of his more substantial work has been "lost, destroyed or dismembered" (Roscoe et al. 155). Here, he has adopted the conventional triangular arrangement for such a tribute, depicting Pitt as an orator at the apex, in his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, with two gods of classical mythology below him: Apollo with his abundant hair and Mercury with his winged hat, sandals and caduceus. Then, below the rocky platform on which they stand, and above the pattern of waves at the base of these figures (i.e., just above the pedestal with its inscription) rides Britannia side-saddle on a seahorse, helmeted and holding aloft the fish that, as Philip Ward-Jackson explains (176), feebly and rather comically replaced Bubb's original thunderbolt.
Left: The whole monument. Rght: Canning's inscription.
On the pedestal Canning describes the younger Pitt as having inherited his father's "genius," and praises him for having restored prosperity and order after "a disastrous war" (the American War of Independence). The monument was apparently intended to be a "pendant" to John Bacon's one for the elder Pitt (Roscoe et. al. 155), but it is less elaborate, and rather stiffly posed, like a tableau vivant, lacking any sense of interaction between the figures. Still, despite the damage to details that it sustained in Word War II, at least it has survived as proof of Bubb's having ably, if not brilliantly, fulfilled a major commission.
Text by Jacqueline Banerjee and photographs by Tim Willasey-Wilsey. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.
Bibliography
Roscoe, Ingrid, Emma Hardy, and M.G. Sullivan. Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.
Ward-Jackson, Philip. Public Sculpture of the City of London. Public Sculpture of Britain, Vol. Seven. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 2003.
Last modified 6 February 2026