Peace Park

Central London has many beautiful squares, oases of rest, reflection, and rumination. Nearly every square has historical associations, but Tavistock Square is uniquely significant. At its centre is one of the most moving of all statues of Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948). The statue, by British sculptor Fredda Brilliant, was gifted to London by the Indian High Commissioner in Britain in 1967, and unveiled by the Labour prime minister of the day, Harold Wilson.

The Gandhi statue lent Tavistock Square a certain serenity, and it was soon followed by a number of peace memorials. A cherry tree was planted (on 6 August 1967) to remember the victims of the Hiroshima bombing; in 1986 the League of Jewish Women planted a field maple to mark the United Nations' International Year of Peace; on 15 May 1994, a volcanic-slate memorial was installed at the square to honour conscientious objectors, and unveiled by one of their number, the composer Michael Tippett. One can understand why, among Londoners, Tavistock Square became known as "the peace park".

The Gandhi represented here is a seated figure, ponderous and meditative, not the more familiar Gandhi with the walking-stick, a searing image made popular by his famous march to the sea.