Epstein's Medical Sculptures

The lowdown

In 1908 the young sculptor Jacob Epstein carved eighteen large nude figures for the facade of what was then the British Medical Association building on the Strand, representing the stages of human life. Their frank nudity caused an enormous scandal, with newspapers and moralists demanding their removal from public view.

The figures survived the outcry, but in the 1930s, when the building passed to another government, the projecting parts were hacked off, officially for safety, leaving them mutilated. The battered figures still stand, free to see from the street, a striking monument both to Epstein's early genius and to London's long history of fussing over public decency.