London's only women's sculpture garden faces eviction — SkimNews
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- theColab opened the Artist's Garden in October 2021 on a neglected roof terrace at Temple underground station — billed as the world's only public sculpture garden devoted to female artists — but Places for London has told the charity its licence will not be renewed on 1 October and they must clear the site.
- Since opening, the garden has attracted 100,000 visitors a year, commissioned 18 major works, collaborated with 24 emerging and established artists, and received more than £500,000 from Westminster council to date.
- Places for London said the terrace may require "essential repair and safety works" and that the space must be cleared for assessment; it added it is working with Westminster council and local stakeholders to explore alternative locations nearby.
- Claire Mander, director and curator of theColab, disputes the rationale, claiming repairs relate to upgrading commercial property below the terrace and that no large-scale roof overhaul is mentioned; she fears the prime riverside site could be handed to a private developer, and the charity has launched a petition and is prepared to go to court.
- An Art UK survey cited in the piece found that of nearly 1,500 London monuments, more than a fifth are dedicated to named men versus just 4% to named women — half as many as those celebrating animals — and only 13% of the capital's public sculptures are by women.
- The site sits above a 17th-century sculpture garden created by the Countess of Arundel, with the terrace built into the Victoria Embankment in 1870; that lineage is foregrounded in Linder Sterling's wraparound photomontage "She Is Here," which has become a rallying cry since the eviction notice.
- Artist Florence Peake, showing work at the garden's current Sculpture in Three Acts exhibition, said women are rarely "trusted to be ambitious and do things to scale" — a man proposing an 18-metre steel piece would be "hailed as a genius," but a woman making the same suggestion faces "anxious sideways glances."
Why it matters: The 1 October eviction puts at risk a free cultural space drawing 100,000 visitors a year and 18 commissioned works from female artists — infrastructure built to address the stark gap Art UK documented (just 4% of London monuments honour women versus more than a fifth honouring men). With theColab preparing legal action, the outcome will test whether short-term commercial interests or landmark gender-equity public art takes precedence on the Victoria Embankment.
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