Thomas Cook in Paris for the Exhibition. During the 1860s he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and the United States. The Thomas Cook statue outside Leicester Railway Station, London Road, Leicester (pictured above) was unveiled on 14 January 1994 by his great-great-grandson Thomas Cook. It was sculpted by James Walter Butler RA. In 1872, he formed a partnership with his son, John Mason Cook, and renamed the travel agency as "Thomas Cook & Son". They acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London. The office also contained a shop which sold essential travel accessories, including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear. Thomas
Statue of William Shakespeare, Leicester Square Statue of William Shakespeare, Leicester Square A statue of William Shakespeare, sculpted by Giovanni Fontana after an original by Peter Scheemakers, has formed the centrepiece of Leicester Square Gardens in London since 1874. The marble figure, copied from Scheemakers' 18th-century monument to Shakespeare in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, stands on a pedestal flanked by dolphins at the centre of a fountain. It is the result of improvements to the gardens made by the financier Albert Grant, who bought the Square in 1874 and had it refurbished to a design by James Knowles. The scroll held by Shakespeare is inscribed with