A Space for us The People’s Museum Somers Town, a Camden-based community-led initiative dedicated to preserving the area’s working class heritage, has successfully acquired a rare pair of blackbird post finials by British sculptor Gilbert William Bayes following a public fundraising campaign.
The works were purchased ahead of the February Design auction at Roseberys and will now return to the neighbourhood for which they were originally conceived.
“This has been a truly collective effort. The return of these blackbirds marks a step towards reconnecting our community with the histories that shaped Somers Town,” said Diana Foster, Director of the People’s Museum Somers Town and a community activist championing working-class histories.
While many of these works have since been lost, with over 200 believed to be missing, the present examples are rare survivals from a largely dispersed series, offering a tangible connection to an important chapter in London’s social and design history.
The acquisition was made possible through a fundraising campaign, supported by public donations via GoFundMe, Places for People, the new Housing association and The Art Fund which enabled the People’s Museum Somers Town to secure the works prior to the sale.
The project forms part of a wider mission to ‘bring the art back’ to Somers Town, restoring works originally created for public housing estates to the community they were intended to serve.
Along with others, the finials, created in the 1930s, formed part of a wider decorative scheme commissioned by the St Pancras Housing Improvement Society, which sought to regenerate Somers Town by replacing overcrowded slum housing with affordable low-rise flats.
As a part of this vision, Bayes introduced elements of ‘art in everyday life’, with his sculptural designs adorning communal courtyards and washing line posts, elevating functional spaces through craftsmanship and imagination – ‘making St Pancras House “fairytale estates”.
It is thought that the blackbird motif referenced the well-known nursery rhyme, ‘Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie’, with multiple finials once arranged around a central pie within an estate.
They were previously sold at Christies in 2013, and from then until now they were held in the private collection of Nina Miller.
“We’re delighted to have facilitated the return of these historically significant works, supporting the preservation of London’s social heritage and reconnecting Bayes’ vision of ‘art in everyday life’ with its original context,” said Nigel Dawson-Ellis, Head of Design.
A Space for us People’s Museum is showing the Blackbirds in context at an ‘Art of the People’ events walk in June’s London Festival of Architecture on 27 June 2026 at 52 Phoenix Road, NW1 1ES. For more information, visit www.aspaceforus.club.