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
Equestrian statue of George IV, Trafalgar Square years earlier with architect Charles Barry expecting them to be filled by groups of statues. An inscription was added towards the end of the 19th century as the public were no longer aware of whom it was a statue. Journalist Janice Turner questioned the need for a George IV statue in Trafalgar Square in 2005; in rebuttal Lord Baker of Dorking argued that the monarch still deserved the statue due to his town planning legacy which remained in London. In 2012, milliner Stephen Jones created crowns for both George IV and his horse to be added to the statue as