Stuart Nathan
Features Editor
It’s time to reinstate the bronze duck at the feet of the statue of Mallard designer Sir Nigel Gresley. It says something important about engineers.
Today I want to talk about ducks.
If readers were to head down to London’s King’s Cross Station they might be in for a big surprise. No, it’s not a teddy bear’s picnic; if it’s teddy bears you want, go to Paddington. But if you haven’t been to King’s Cross for a while, it’s changed rather a lot. No longer the dingy, dodgy, cramped forecourt of old; there’s now a soaring lattice canopy of tessellated triangular glass panels; the handsome old frontage has been restored; and beneath the new canopy is a spacious, airy space where you can wait for your train, have a coffee or a sandwich, and generally unwind.
There are also a few curious touches. You’ll see people in an archaic-looking school uniform; Harry Potter fans looking for the mythical Platform nine-and-three-quarters. What they’re looking for is a luggage trolley embedded in a wall, its basket often filled with flowers in tribute to the late Alan Rickman.

You’ll also find a rather unassuming statue of a middle-aged man with a moustache. Slightly larger than life-size and cast in bronze, it stands with one hand in its jacket pocket and the other clutching a folio. And if you glance down to its feet, near its sensible lace-up shoes you’re likely to see a small family of plastic bath ducks.
This statue depicts Sir Nigel Gresley, the former chief engineer of the London and Northeastern Railway (LNER) and celebrated designer of locomotives. Why are there ducks at his feet? The original design of the statue included a bronze duck, referring to two things: Gresley was fond of waterfowl and bred them as a hobby, which led to him naming his most famous locomotive after them – the record-breaking Mallard. The duck was intended to spark the curiosity of young visitors to the station and encourage them to ask questions, perhaps contributing to their knowledge of engineering.
However, Gresley’s grandsons objected to the avian inclusion, thinking it demeaning. The Gresley Society, which commissioned the statue, went along with their wishes and removed the duck. Some sections of the British public, appreciating the air of whimsy which is so characteristic to Britain and which is so confusing and irritating to both our neighbours and the humourless, are objecting to this decision by adding their own rubber duckies.
As readers might infer from the above, I’m in favour of the duck. While the statue (the work of sculptor Hazel Reeves) is a fine likeness of Gresley, it’s a bloke in a suit. And quite rightly too; this isn’t the Victorian era and we don’t go in for overblown heroic statuary anymore. But a bronze statue, much the same colour as the wall it stands by, needs something distinctive to mark it out; not everybody reads plaques (though I do, which often annoys my companions who wonder why I’ve stopped dead in my tracks) and Gresley isn’t even placed on a podium.
Of course the best memorial to Gresley is his work; the great, gleaming streamlined steel, chrome and brass bulk of the Mallard itself. But that, again quite rightly, is elsewhere, in the National Rail Museum in York, where it can be admired in the context of its development from more traditional locomotives (including one of Gresley’s other great designs, the Flying Scotsman). Maybe a bronze relief frieze of the Mallard and the Scotsman blazing along at full steam could have been cast and placed behind the Gresley statue. But the bronze duck was a lovely touch to the original design; it’s modest, admittedly unheroic, but appealingly whimsical and actually relevant: the man liked ducks, for heaven’s sake. And it’s a reminder of his best-known work in an appealingly cryptic fashion.
While the family’s wishes must of course be considered, it’s hard to see how our feathered friend can be seen as demeaning. It humanises Gresley and reminds us that engineers are ordinary people with interests – not remote and obsessive geniuses consumed by their work. Classical portraitists would always include personal touches of their sitters to help convey their characters and Gresley’s duck is in this tradition. Moreover, it helps to give the message that anyone can be an engineer: you don’t have to dress funny and you can retain your character quirks. And a noble bronze duck is surely less demeaning than a puddle of lurid yellow rubber duckies.
Although the wishes of Sir Nigel’s family have to be considered, I have always thought it a real shame that the Mallard was removed. Not only humour and whimsy – it also has an air of the visually poetic to it. Of course there is also the precedent for such oblique references set by the celebratory telegram sent by Lady Wedgewood to Sir Nigel when the record was gained: “Three cheers for the Mallard, LMS out for a duck.”
More on the topic of removing items originally included in statues.
In a city originally formed by taking a small piece of each ‘State’ which bordered upon its Capital..there was a statue to the First President of that country. He is ‘mounted’ (on a horse I hasten to point out!) and almost since its erection the statue has been a problem. GW’s mount was a stallion, complete with all its necessary appendages: and the conservative majority on several occasions over the past century or so took either hack-saw or welding kit to remove or replace the offending or necessary part(s). Where are we up to now? Any US readers of our illustrious organ can surely tell us what Trump(s) at present.
“not remote and obsessive geniuses consumed by their work.”
Actually most of those who really make a contribution to the ascent of man are exactly that?
I agree about the duck! Keep it! It might get people interested who otherwise wouldn’t give just a normal statue a second glance. Before you know it there’ll be a new enthusiast.
I thought the ducks were an interesting and informative part of the statue. Unfortunately engineers are often thought of by some as being mechanical and humourless, What a shame such a ridiculous canard has been perpetuated. Put the ducks back, any thing else would be quackers. Show an engineer as being human for a change! All- right me duck.
Thank you for putting in all the puns I avoided.
I live to serve,
If ever I find myself packing for a journey to Kings Cross I will undoubtedly be adding a few yellow rubber ducks. If enough people do it perhaps the family will cave in. I mean no one has tried to exorcise the mice from Cuneo’s paintings and they are just as twee.
Why not another bronze statue alongside the statue of Gresley of a single Mallard. No comment, no plaque – we shall all appreciate the significance. Should keep everyone happy!
Never seen the statue, but seeing your photo and the name – guess what I thought of the Mallard – British engineering at its best, no need for a plaque the little duck said it all.
Don’t think the grandsons did their grandfathers memory any favours – After all the great man called his best known creation after a wet feathered friend, which sort of implies his approval for the association!
While I appreciate the wish of people to add some whimsy to draw attention to the statue I do think that a duck is an irrelevance. Gresley is known, as much as he is, to the general public as the man who designed a steam engine called Mallard not for any great interest in our web-footed avian friends. If the statue had been of Sir Peter Scott then a duck is relevant.
Why not have an angel in a kilt as a representation of the Flying Scotsman, it’s just as appropriate.
A model of Mallard the locomotive would be better as it provides a link that most people will know about to a man they may well have no knowledge of at all, rather than a steam-buff in-joke.
A statue the same colour as its background doesn’t help…
I wasn’t aware that Sir Nigel had any input in the naming of the locomotives he designed.
It would of course have been much better if the record had been set by 4498 (Sir Nigel Gresley) rather than 4468 (Mallard) – then there could have been a heated debate about whether the statue should have had a miniature of itself!
Sir Nigel’s family should consider that he obviously did not see his interest in waterfoul as something that would lessen his public standing or he would not have named his iconic engine Mallard. Give the man his duck and bring a little bit of cheer to the curious observer.
Sir Nigel Gresley holds the post war speed record for steam, Bittern the preserved (or modern era) steam speed record. Quite an accomplishment for the A4s!
Without wishing to be pedantic
Mallard is a stretched Ivatt Atlantic.
For something terrific
Try a Bulleid Pacific!
Perhaps all the London termini and stations in other cities could have their own statues to famous railway men. George Hudson in York?
There’s a statue of IK Brunel at Paddington and one of Robert Stephenson at Euston. St Pancras has one of John Betjeman, without whom the whole building would have probably been demolished.
I cannot help but think this should have an additional line something like:
“They really were terribly frantic.”
It’s such a great pity Gresley’s grandsons didn’t even bother to read my book ‘Mallard’ about all his great achievements. Without Mallard, I doubt this argument would even be debated. Mallard made Gresley’s name and gave him the success and publicity he deserved. Such a pity his relatives have let him down so badly and failed to understand the importance of honouring this contract and including his beloved duck. Long live Mallard.
I think it irks some people when the person behind the original naming of the A4 as birds of fast flight, ws none other than Gresleys Daughter Violet ( later Mrs Godfrey) This is quoted in Part 2 of Grssley Pacifics by O S Nock a well known railway historian.It there seems very ironic that the man behind all this fuss and who considers the Mallard demeaning, and demended its removal,is none other than Gresleys Grandson a Tim Godrey ( see the connection?) who is himself a duck breeder. You couldnt make this up esp as he has on several occasions extolled his Grandfather love of ducks.
Who’s to say what keep such a man going, in the middle of the night, working through the innumerable challenges to putting such a work together, piece, by piece, clearances and masses fighting to destroy, but conquered. To see into the machine and not be totally intimidated by the immensity of it takes an inspiration. Something to keep one going, despite the desperation. Solving one after another of the puzzles until a machine such as the Mallard emerges.
Who can say for sure, the ducks well may be what kept Sir Nigel Gresley going when the task looked grim and he needed a mental deflection to rewind his resolve and forge ahead.
The Ducks speak of the man..
There was a statue to George Hudson built in York during his lifetime, most of it now stands adjacent to the Railway Station close to the bar walls Junction of Station Road, Station Rise and Leeman Rd. However when the evidence of his financial wrongdoings was revealed the city council removed the statues head and replaced it with that of George Leeman instead. you can see the join just above the silk stock the statue is wearing. No point wasting a fine statue now is there!