Bryan Kneale ‘Slatehook’ sculpture

The Heritage of London Trust, in partnership with Lambeth Council, restored the ‘Slatehoook’ sculpture by Bryan Kneale in Fenwick Estate in Clapham.

The artist Bryan Kneale (1930–2025) studied at the Royal Academy, won the Prix de Rome, then spent a brief period in Italy painting, until, inspired by the sculpture Festival of Britain in 1951, he moved into welded sculpture. He taught at the Royal College of Art (1963-95) in the Sculpture Department. He exhibited widely and his work was acquired by private and public collections in the UK and internationally. In 1961, he was asked to create a sculpture for the LCC Patronage of the Arts Scheme for the newly built Fenwick Estate in Clapham. While visiting his birthplace, the Isle of Man, he saw a hedge with slate gateposts that reminded him of standing stones. He got two pieces of slate and made a small maquette, which was later owned by Richard Attenborough.

The sculpture is intact and exists in the same form as artist originally intended, but over the decades, it showed the effects of time and weather - the metal parts have corrosion with areas of red oxide undercoat showing and the large slab of slate, which is held within the metal structure, was graffitied. The concrete plinth was heavily ingrained with dirt and chipped around the lower edge.

The conservation team removed limescale deposits, cleaned the sculpture, filled the cracks, colour matched with stone fillers and cement, redressed the lead around the steel and repainted with red oxide primer and iron oxide paint.

We unveiled the restored Slatehook together with Lambeth Mayor Cllr Paul Valentine, residents, friends and local schoolchildren on 15 October 2026.