Sir George Frampton
and His Peter Pan Statue

Sir George was born in London in 1860 and came to his career by birth. His father was a stonemason who maintained a studio in the St. John’s Wood neighborhood of northcentral London. In 1878, young George was introduced to a French architect who had just won a contract to do decorative work on the façade of the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) in Paris. For a young apprentice of eighteen, a position as an assistant stone cutter would be the one resumé experience that could gain him admission to the London Technical School of Art.

After two years in Paris, George returned to London and began a two-year study with William Frith at that very school in South London. He later attended the Royal Academy and through competition and demanding work won a gold medal from the administration and a travelling scholarship to Rome.

By age 25, he willingly took on challenges the scope of which would have been cause for second thoughts among artists many years his senior. Just two of the many are the altarpiece in the Manchester Cathedral and two figurines of Concord and Industry that were purchased for the city municipal building in Christchurch, New Zealand.

By age 40, Frampton had developed a reputation for creative sculpture and a willingness to take on any challenge. Since his reputation preceded him, it was he who Sir James Matthew Barrie, the Scottish novelist and playwright, sought out when he decided that his 1904 “fairy play” Peter Pan; the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up should be memorialized in a London park setting – preferably in the Kensington neighborhood.

Barrie met with Frampton at least three times over the possibility of a commission. An arrangement was agreed to in early 1910, but there were several stringent conditions. One of the most demanding was that the project should be completed in absolute secrecy.

Barrie’s play was set in London’s West End and featured an ageless boy named Peter and an ordinary girl named Wendy. The two, with a host of other characters enjoyed a series of adventures in a fantasy world named Neverland. It became an instant favorite.

Frampton completed the 14-foot all bronze statue late in 1911, but Barrie was quite disappointed because Frampton had not used the model that Barrie had hoped he would. Barrie’s disappointment did not stop him from taking possession of the work and then during the early morning hours of April 30, 1912, having it erected in Kensington Gardens without ceremony, fanfare, or permission. He meant it to be a surprise for the neighborhood children who would think that fairies put it there overnight.

The fate of the statue was sealed when The Times, published the following notice on May 1^st, “There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning. Down by the little bay on the south-western side of the tail of the Serpentine they will find a May-day gift by Mr. J. M. Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree, with fairies, and mice and squirrels all around. It is the work of Sir George Frampton, and the bronze figure of the boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived.”