Diana and the Hounds

The statue of Diana and the Hounds erected outside the Conservatory in the Fitzroy Gardens is the work of William Leslie Bowles. The mould was completed in 1939 but the onset of the Second World War temporarily delayed casting by A. B. Brunton in London. The statue was in fact the last to be cast in Britain before the War and had to run the gauntlet of German U-Boats on its return to Australia. It was erected in a pool in front of the Conservatory at a cost of £750 and unveiled by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Coles on the 4th of September, 1940. The statue was the first new work to be installed in the Fitzroy Gardens following the removal of the old plaster and cement copies of ancient Roman and Greek sculpture first erected in the 1860's. The new bronze "Diana" replaced the old disintegrating cement statue copies from the Roman "Diana" Goddess of Mood and Contemplation held in the Vatican, Rome.