Statue of Charlie Chaplin, London Statue of Charlie Chaplin, London The statue of Charlie Chaplin in Leicester Square, London, is a work of 1979 by the sculptor John Doubleday. It portrays the actor, comedian and filmmaker in his best-known role, as The Tramp. A memorial to Chaplin in the city of his birth was proposed on 25 December 1977, soon after Chaplin's death, by Illtyd Harrington, the leader of the opposition in the Greater London Council. Initial plans for a memorial in the Elephant and Castle, in South London where Chaplin spent his early years, were dropped and instead Leicester Square, at the centre of
Leicester Square (named after Sir John Cam Hobhouse), Hunt's Court (after Samuel Hunt, 17th century carpenter and leaseholder), Irving Street (after actor Henry Irving), Orange Street (named after William III, Prince of Orange), Oxdendon Street (after Sir Henry Oxenden, 1st Baronet), Panton Street (after local property dealer Thomas Panton), and Trafalgar Square. The land where Leicester Square now lies once belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster Abbey and the Beaumont family. In 1536, Henry VIII took control of of land around the square, with the remaining being transferred to the king the following year. The square is named after Robert