There’s Room on the Bench (13 Photos)

October 20, 2026

By Vidar

Most of them left room on the bench.

Each of these statues sits on a public bench, and most sit at one end, so anyone can take the seat beside them. Six are in Britain: a codebreaker in Manchester, a comedian in Finchley, a novelist in Richmond, a spy in Stourbridge, a general in Edinburgh and two strangers at Canary Wharf.

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📖 Virginia Woolf — By Laury Dizengremel in Richmond, London, England 🇬🇧

This is how the bench is meant to be used: Woolf at one end, a man on his phone at the other. She sits on the upper terraces of Richmond Riverside, on a bench where people can sit next to her.

💡 Richmond Fact: It is the first full-size bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in November 2022 after five years of fundraising. She lived in Richmond from 1914 to 1924, and the Hogarth Press was founded there in 1915.

📷 Photo: Matt Brown / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

👓 John Lennon — By José Villa Soberón in Havana, Cuba 🇨🇺

Lennon sits cross-legged at the end of a park bench in the Vedado district, in what is now John Lennon Park. The statue was unveiled on December 8, 2000, twenty years after his death.

💡 Glasses Fact: His round glasses have been stolen several times. During the day a guard sits near the bench and puts a pair on the statue if you ask.

📷 Photo: lin padgham / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

🍎 Alan Turing Memorial — By Glyn Hughes in Manchester, England 🇬🇧

Turing sits at one end of a park bench in Sackville Gardens, holding an apple. The memorial was unveiled on June 23, 2001, on what would have been his 89th birthday.

💡 Bench Fact: Letters on the bench are meant to read “Founder of Computer Science” in Enigma code. The sculptor was Glyn Hughes.

📷 Photo: Alexey Komarov / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🎙️ “A Conversation with Spike” — By John Somerville in Finchley, London, England 🇬🇧

Spike Milligan sits on a bronze bench in the gardens of Stephens House, turning as if to speak to someone sitting next to him. Details on the bench refer to his life. It was unveiled in September 2014.

💡 Campaign Fact: Fans raised £60,000 for it in a Finchley Society campaign that took ten years.

📷 Photo: Loz Pycock / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

📚 Gabriele D’Annunzio — By Alessandro Verdi in Trieste, Italy 🇮🇹

The poet sits on a stone bench on Piazza della Borsa, bent over a book, and two visitors have joined in to read over his shoulder. The bronze was installed on September 12, 2019, and its reading pose copies a well-known photograph of him.

💡 Bronze Fact: The Fondart foundry cast it using the lost-wax method, and the operation cost €18,000. The date marked the centenary of his occupation of Fiume, and Croatia protested against the unveiling.

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🍿 Popcorn for Mark Twain — Location Not Recorded

A soda in one hand and popcorn held out in the other, offered to the cross-legged bronze man at the other end of the bench. The bronze looks a lot like Mark Twain, but our archive photo does not record which Twain bench this is, or where.

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🦆 Hans Christian Andersen — By Georg Lober in Central Park, New York City, USA 🇺🇸

Andersen sits on a bench by Conservatory Water, reading The Ugly Duckling to a bronze duckling at his feet. These visitors took the hint and leaned in for the story.

💡 Story Fact: The monument marks his 150th birthday and was unveiled in 1956, and the Central Park Conservancy says children’s storytelling has been held there since 1957.

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🌿 Patrick Kavanagh — By John Coll in Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪

Legs crossed, arms folded, Kavanagh sits beside the Grand Canal on Mespil Road. The statue answers his own poem, “Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin”, and he sits on one side of the bench, leaving the other side free.

💡 Unveiling Fact: It was made for Dublin’s year as European City of Culture in 1991 and unveiled by President Mary Robinson.

📷 Photo: Peierls / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

🎖️ General Stanisław Maczek — By Bronisław Krzysztof in Edinburgh, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

In cap and greatcoat, the general sits on a bronze bench with his name on the backrest, in the courtyard of the City Chambers off the Royal Mile. Maczek commanded the 1st Polish Armoured Division in World War II and spent the rest of his life in Edinburgh.

💡 Edinburgh Fact: Denied a pension after the war, he worked as a barman in the city. He died in 1994, aged 102. A public appeal raised £85,000 for the statue.

📷 Photo: Exiled Englishman / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🎩 Major Frank Foley — By Andy DeComyn in Stourbridge, England 🇬🇧

A man in a suit and hat on a park bench, briefcase at his side. Foley, shown as he looked as a British spy in the 1930s, is called the “British Schindler”: he helped thousands of people escape Nazi Germany.

💡 Park Fact: He retired to Stourbridge in 1949. The £40,000 statue in Mary Stevens Park was unveiled by the Duke of Cambridge in September 2018.

📷 Photo: Elliott Brown / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

🗨️ “Two Men on a Bench” — By Giles Penny in Canary Wharf, London, England 🇬🇧

No room for you on this one: two smooth bronze figures have the bench to themselves, one leaning in to the other beside the dock at Wren Landing. Penny made it in 1995, and Canary Wharf Group bought it after it was shown in the 1999 exhibition “The Shape of the Century”.

📷 Photo: Prioryman / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🕵️ Georges Simenon — By Roger Lenertz in Liège, Belgium 🇧🇪

The creator of Inspector Maigret sits in a raincoat with his pipe on a stone bench on Place du Commissaire Maigret, in his home city. He is shown at 49, and his arm rests along the backrest so that you can sit beside him for a photo.

📷 Photo: Dominic Nelson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

📱 Catching Up on the News — Location Not Recorded

A bronze priest in a cassock and sandals sits on a park bench, and a young man has taken the seat beside him to show him something on his phone. The statue looks very patient about it. Our archive photo does not record where this bench is.

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