Statue of Peter the Great

The Statue of Peter the Great on Glaisher Street in London is a striking bronze memorial erected in 2000 that features intentionally distorted proportions designed by Soviet dissident sculptor Mikhail Chemyakin. The monument commemorates the Tsar’s 1698 visit to Deptford to study shipbuilding. Chemyakin modeled the disproportionately small head after a 1719 life mask by Carlo Rastrelli and elongated the body to evoke traditional Russian religious icons.

London Β· from the walk β€œThe Tsar's Deptford” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Statue of Peter the Great

Glaisher Street, Deptford, SE8

Why does the Statue of Peter the Great in London have a tiny head?

Take a good look at what you see in front of you. A tall figure in a tricorn hat, clutching a pipe and a telescope... but something is Off. That head is Tiny. Absurdly, comically small on that towering bronze body. And there, to his right... a squat little dwarf, grinning away, holding a model ship and a globe. Welcome to one of London's strangest monuments... and one of its most Russian stories.......... This memorial was erected in the year two thousand to commemorate the tercentenary of the Grand Embassy of Peter the Great. It is, quite literally, a gift from the Russian people.......... But let's rewind to January sixteen ninety-eight. Tsar Pyotr, known as Peter the Great, arrived in England with a large entourage that included four dwarfs. That explains the little fellow beside him. The full party was extraordinary β€” four chamberlains, three interpreters, two clocksmiths, a cook, a priest, six trumpeters, seventy soldiers as tall as their monarch... four dwarves, and a monkey.......... And what was this Tsar Doing in Deptford of all places? Peter worked incognito as "Peter Mikhailov" in the shipyards, honing skills that he later applied to founding Russia's navy and establishing Saint Petersburg as a major port.......... He stayed at a grand house called Sayes Court, owned by the diarist John Evelyn. And here is where the story gets... Wild. The party used Evelyn's portrait gallery for target practice, and every chair in the house was burned for firewood. Among the damages β€” three hundred broken panes of glass, a hundred and seventy feet of oak wainscoting, and floors destroyed by grease and ink.......... But the worst crime of all? The Russian Tsar got so drunk that he trashed the house and gardens β€” worst of all, by riding through Evelyn's prize holly hedge in a wheelbarrow! This hedge was Evelyn's Pride β€” four hundred feet long, nine feet high and five feet thick β€” and the Russians battered the whole thing to the ground. The damages were estimated at three hundred and fifty pounds β€” at least fifty thousand pounds in today's money.......... Now look at this statue's peculiar proportions. That tiny head isn't a mistake. The sculptor, Mikhail Chemyakin, was a Soviet dissident artist who was deported from the Ussr to France in nineteen seventy-one after forced treatment in psychiatric hospitals. The small head was designed after a life mask of Peter himself, crafted by Carlo Rastrelli in seventeen nineteen. The elongated body, according to Chemyakin, was inspired by traditional Russian icons. His identical seated Peter in Saint Petersburg's Peter and Paul Fortress appalled people at its unveiling in nineteen ninety-one. Locals eventually nicknamed it the "Bronze Stay-At-Home."

...... And here's one final twist. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who regards Peter as a pivotal figure in Russia's European integration, visited this very statue during his two thousand and three state trip to London, accompanied by the Duke of York. UK relations with Russia have deteriorated sharply since Putin sailed down the Thames that day. The Kremlin has since deleted the press release about the visit β€” but it is still available on a web archive.......... So this strange little monument, tucked away among apartment blocks on Glaisher Street... is a time capsule. Of Russian ambition, English hospitality gone horribly wrong, a dissident sculptor's irreverent vision, and a diplomatic friendship that didn't last.

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