At the time of his death in 1824, Byron was reputed to be the most famous poet in Europe. Although London had been central to Byron’s early life, on his death in 1824 the Dean of Westminster Abbey refused permission for him to be buried or commemorated in the Abbey, on the grounds of his supposedly ‘licentious’ verse and scandalous reputation. London had no memorial for Byron for more than 50 years after his death.
But in the 1870s Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli led a campaign to raise funds for the creation of a statue for London, and in 1880 this was erected on the edge of Hyde Park, near Hyde Park Corner.
Creating the statue
The competition to design the new statue was won by sculptor Richard Claude Belt (1850–1920).
"The great object of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even though in pain."
Lord Byron, in a letter to Annabella Milbanke on September 6, 1813
