The women propping up London's landscape

DO you ever stop to really look at a statue? Most of us don't, and we are missing so much - especially with statues of women, a far more varied crew than the bronze army of male soldiers and statesmen that have so long dominated our streets.

From 13th-century Eleanor of Castile - married aged 12 to the 15-year-old soon-to-be Edward I - to Queen Victoria (by far the most memorialised person in Britain), queens dominated the scene for centuries. They aren't here on personal merit, of course, but among them are extraordinary women thrust to the fore in a man's world.

The first standalone statue of a named non-royal woman in London didn't appear until the very end of the 19th century. She wasn't a selfless nurse or social activist but an A-list celebrity actress, Sarah Siddons, who had audiences fainting from "Siddons fever". She was followed by a sprinkling of other women's statues, but representation only really picked up in the 21st century.

Being late to the party - and less conventionally powerful - has had one advantage. Statues of women are far less likely to be the target of protest than those of men - although Queen Eleanor's original London monument was deliberately destroyed in the English Civil War. Objecting to effigies isn't new.

A survey in 2021 found that our capital had "more statues of animals than of named women". London has a better percentage than any other major UK city, but even here the researchers found fewer than one in six statues commemorating an individual were of women. The three years since then, however, have seen a statue boom and in 2022-3, more female figures were unveiled than men.

There may be a way to go to equality, but women are chipping away at disparities with each passing decade...

Queen Charlotte Queen Square, Bloomsbury, 1775, unknown sculptor

German princess Charlotte arrived in England in 1761 aged 17. She disembarked, met her husband-to-be for the first time, put on her heavy diamond-encrusted wedding dress (which nearly fell off because she'd lost so much weight being seasick on the voyage) and was married to the King of England - all in six hours. Fortunately, the match proved successful, at least until the unfortunate "Mad King George" was overtaken by severe mental illness.

Queen Charlotte had a low profile in modern times until Bridgerton hit our screens. Surprisingly, its depiction of her as black is not entirely a modern invention. Rumours swirled in her lifetime after a doctor said she had a "mulatto face".

She almost certainly wasn't a woman of colour, but this dark lead statue will serve Bridgerton fans well. If it's even Charlotte. Some experts say it's Queen Anne!

Queen Anne (1886 copy of 1709-12 original) Front of St Paul's Cathedral

This one is definitely Anne. Poor thing. Her 17 pregnancies produced just five live babies, all but one of whom died in infancy, while the last succumbed to smallpox aged 11. She also reigned at a time of fractious politics. Soon after her statue was installed in front of St Paul's, this rhyme went viral: "Brandy-faced nan, left in the lurch, face to the gin-shop, back to the church."

It was very unfair to a diligent queen who worked with Parliament and united the United Kingdom. Anne's effigy was so vandalised by the 19th century that it was quietly replaced - by night - with a copy. Criticism continued, and Queen Victoria was eventually asked for permission to remove it. She apparently replied: "Certainly not! Why, it might someday be suggested that my statue be removed, which I should very much dislike."

Sarah Siddons Paddington Green, by Léon-Joseph Chavalliaudt, 1897

Best known for her unusually sympathetic portrayal of Lady Macbeth, this early 19th-century celebrity actress also played Hamlet. Known well beyond theatreland, she carefully curated her public image and when she died of an infection (pre-antibiotics), 5,000 people attended her funeral at Paddington Green. Here she sits, now rather alone, on a monument erected six decades later - London's first standalone statue of a named non-royal woman, and its first of an actor. She looks suitably down-in-the-mouth for a "great tragedian", and who can blame her? Her audience now is the teeming A40.

Old Lady of Threadneedle Street

Bank of England, Threadneedle St, by Charles Wheeler, 1930

The Old Lady, more correctly Britannia, sits atop the façade of the Bank of England, coins cascading beside her. When she replaced the original classical version in 1930, the Evening News was not impressed.

"The lady...appears in the act of removing her bathrobe", it opined, adding of her right hand: "You can feel that once your money got into that heroic grip, nothing would pry it loose, not even you."

The bank itself was nicknamed The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street after a sharp political cartoon of 1797 showing the prime minister of the day kissing an unwilling old lady, clothed in banknotes, while he tries to get his hands into her pockets full of coins.

Anna Pavlova Victoria Palace Theatre, Victoria Street, 2006 copy of a 1911 original, sculptor unknown

One of the most famous ballerinas in the world, Anna Pavlova performed in this then-new theatre as well as balancing in golden glory on a single pointe atop its roof.

An unlikely star, she was nicknamed "the broom" at Russia's Imperial Ballet School for her awkward lanky legs. But she persisted and developed a famously expressive style that audiences adored. She became so popular that her fans were known, Swiftie-style, as Pavlovatzi.

Most famous for her solo "The Dying Swan", Pavlova moved to London in 1912 and kept a pet swan in her garden. Despite her statue's elegance, perfect balance and swan neck, Pavlova apparently considered it bad luck to look at her effigy, and she would close the curtains of her carriage as she passed.

The name Pavlova also now conjures a creamy meringue pudding. Said to have been created for the ballerina's Antipodean tour, Australia and New Zealand still argue over where it was invented.

Amy Winehouse Stables Market, Camden, by Scott Eaton, 2014

Amy Winehouse is memorialised in bronze, but she has not been put on a pedestal. She stands among us - her slight figure often hidden amid shoppers and easily embraced by selfie snappers - in north London's lively Camden Market. Winehouse lived and died nearby, succumbing to alcohol poisoning just before her 28th birthday - making her another sad member of the "27 Club".

Camden Council waived their rule that a person must have been dead 20 years before a memorial is installed. Amy's friend Barbara Windsor unveiled the statue in the presence of the Winehouse family, three years after the singer's death.

The first woman to win five Grammy Awards, she gained recognition for her hit Rehab, about refusing treatment for alcoholism.

Girl With A Dolphin North end of Tower Bridge, by David Wynne, 1973

On the banks of the Thames stands a statue of a woman (not a girl) diving down to touch a dolphin. The naked woman is natural and free.

The sculptor, David Wynne, studied zoology at Cambridge, or rather, he famously didn't study and the master of his college is said to have told him: "You will be more use to the world as a sculptor... you are therefore excused all lectures."

But he did bring knowledge of biology to his sculpture - and his sports contacts too. In 2023, 50 years after the statue was created, tennis star Virginia Wade revealed that she had posed nude for the statue. She has no regrets. Wynne had already made a couple of (fully clothed) figures of her, but she says: "Girl with a Dolphin is... gorgeous."

Queen Elizabeth II Royal Albert Hall, by Poppy Field, 2023

Royals still get statues, but not so often. Almost unbelievably, this 2023 statue is the capital's first of the late Queen, despite her record-breaking 70-year reign.

The Albert Hall was commissioned by her great-great grandfather, Prince Albert, and opened by her great-great grandmother Victoria (new statues of them stand on the other side of the building). Elizabeth II attended her first concert here in 1934, aged eight, and her last - her 113th - just before the pandemic in 2019. Now she and Prince Philip flank the South door, in evening dress, looking about to step out of their niches and make their way into the venue.

London's Statues of Women by Juliet Rix (Safe Haven Books, £16.99) is out now