The statue is mounted atop a granite
base that is semi-circular in shape. Details of McLeod are inscribed into the
curved face. The building is recessed to allow the statue to be placed slightly
away from the edge of the base.
The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association website [visit link] tells us about
the statue:
"Full length statue of Alexander McLeod standing in
niche on front of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society building. He is wearing
a frock-coat and waistcoat, with a handkerchief in his top pocket, and is very
realistic in appearance with long flowing side whiskers. He is standing in front
of a pile of books stacked on the ground, right foot forward, a scroll in his
left hand, his right arm bent at the elbow with the palm upwards.
The statue stands on a rounded plinth projecting from
the façade. This has a grey granite face bearing the inscription, and an ochre
coloured terracotta base and rim. The niche is incorporated in a yellow tile
panel which rises the full height of the building, with a clock in a cupola on
the top.
Above the statue at second storey height, within the
tiled panel, is a raised circle with lettering round it and the RACS motto in
the centre. Inside are two curved sprays following the line of the circle and a
Tudor rose at the base, a thistle and shamrock.
The building is long, three storeys high, red brick with
yellow terracotta dressings. It has elaborate relief decoration round the
windows. The panel is in the centre and incorporates the doorway, and in
addition to the niche at first floor height it has fluted pilasters, a frieze,
pediment and raised lettering. The niche has double pilasters on either side
supporting a mock pediment. The façade of the building on the ground floor has
been altered and modernised but the panel has been preserved in its entirety.
Capitals with a grotesque mask with open mouth in it. Pilasters repeated round
bay windows.
On the opposite side of the street is 136-152 Powis
Street built in 1938 by S.W. Ackeroyd, the company architect, a modernistic
building.
On 134, next door, is also a plaque with the motto 'Each
for all and all for each' in a wreath.
The statue was commissioned by members of the Royal
Arsenal Co-operative Society as a mark of appreciation of McLeod's services to
the Society and Co-operative movement. This was the thirtieth anniversary year
of its foundation. At the quarterly meeting on 25 May 1898 a committee was
formed to consider what form the tribute to McLeod should take. In September the
committee reported their recommendation that a statue of him be commissioned and
placed in a niche over the main entrance of the headquarters building, known as
the Central Stores, in Powis Street. An almshouse was also proposed which would
be named after him. These two recommendations would have cost the Society about
£500 with additional money being raised by voluntary subscriptions. They were
put to the Society's members who rejected the almshouse proposal but accepted
the statue. Three months later they also agreed to the formation of a McLeod
Memorial Reference Library to be located at the Central Stores at a cost of
approximately £250 although this [was slow to get off the ground - did it
ever?].
Alfred Drury was chosen as the sculptor. The statue was
unveiled by Alderman George Bishop who was at the time Secretary to the Woolwich
Equitable Building Society and 'a member and good friend of the Society for many
years'. He paid tribute to McLeod, and also his wife who had supported him in
the work until her death. 'Many of the most important things in connection with
the Society had been initiated by Mr McLeod, and in these "though dead, yet he
speaketh"'. The author of the history of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society
written for its jubilee, commented on the likeness of the statue: 'It revealed a
likeness so striking that one felt for a moment that "Old Mac", as he was
affectionately called, was back again with us. The tears welled in one's eyes
and the lump came into one's throat as one gazed at the marvellous likeness,
which depicted so well the steadfastness and goodness of the man'.
In 1868 a group of skilled workers from the Woolwich
Arsenal set up the Royal Arsenal Supply Association, led by William Rose and
Alexander McLeod. Initially they sold tea, butter and sugar from Rose's house in
Woolwich, then in 1872 they leased premises at 147 Powis Street as a shop and
changed the name to the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS). It became
known locally as 'The Stores'.
The new building, which also became their head office,
was built in 1903 by the RACS architect Frank Bethell, and is in red brick with
terracotta ornamentation. Behind it a large area housed their growing operations
including a bakery and a dairy. Co-operative groups had been set up amongst
working communities from the time of the Industrial Revolution to combat high
food prices and adulterated food, but it was a society in Rochdale in 1844 that
set the pattern for the later Co-operative movement. They brought in many
successful measures including the Co-op dividend whereby a share of the profits
was distributed back to members who had made purchases during the year.
Alexander McLeod became the Secretary/Manager of the
Royal Arsenal Society in 1882. It grew rapidly, opening shops throughout the
area and expanding the premises in Powis Street. In 1889 the Society was the
twenty first largest out of the 1,500 plus then in existence, and had around
7,000 members. It later grew to be the second largest society in the country.
The building closed in the 1980s/90s and there is no
RACS presence in Woolwich now. Various Council services have taken it over. The
building was listed in 1989.
Alexander Mcleod (1832-1902) one of the founders of
Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS), set up by Arsenal workers in 1868.
First full-time secretary from 1882 until his death. He was the son of Skye
crofters and served an apprenticeship of five years as a mechanical engineer on
the Firth of Forth. He then worked for Scottish railway companies. At the age of
27 he visited a friend at the Great Eastern railway works at Stratford and
secured work at the Arsenal at Woolwich where he stayed until 1878. In 1882 he
was appointed dual Secretary and Manager of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative
Society which had been set up by a group of workers from the Arsenal in 1868,
and he remained so until his death. McLeod was held in high regard both locally
and throughout the Co-operative Movement, described in fact as 'a Prince among
secretaries' by George Jacob Holyoake, another revered figure in the Movement.
Died 17 May 1902. In his obituary in 'Comradeship', the RACS magazine, of June
1902, Holyoake said of him: 'The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, standing
like a pillar of cloud or of fire of old, to show to London the road to a better
social system, is the monument that commemorates his life work'.
Inscriptions:
On projecting plinth below statue, grey
granite face with incised letters painted in gold:
ALEXANDER MCLEOD / BORN SEPT 29 1832 / DIED MAY 17 1902
/ TREASURER 1868-1869 / SECRETARY 1869-1882 / SECTY ~ MANAGER
1882-1902
[The words born, died and Treasurer are in italic
lettering] At second floor height round the edge of raised ceramic circle,
raised lettering:
ROYAL ARSENAL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED.
Across the
centre of the circle:
EACH / FOR ALL / AND ALL / FOR / EACH
At top on decorative panel? below two arched windows:
CENTRAL STORES / ESTABLISHED 1868 / REBUILT 1903
Inside the doorway are two plaques dated 24 September
1902. The right hand one commemorates the establishment of the Society on 7
November 1868 under the name of the Royal Arsenal Supply Association, and the
left hand one commemorates the rebuilding of the Central
Stores."
The building, that is now primarily a hotel, is Grade II
listed with the entry at the English Heritage website [visit
link] telling us:
"Large commercial premises with retail outlet. 1903, by
F Bethall for Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. Red brick with terracotta
dressings; slate roof. Italian Renaissance style. 2 to 3 storeys; symmetrical
21-bay facade. Mid C20 plate-glass windows to ground floor. Central 3-storey,
11-bay range: central 4- storey clock tower has terracotta facade articulated by
fluted composite pilasters to each storey, semi-circular moulded arch set on
Composite jambs to doorway, statue of Alexander McLeod (Society's Treasurer) by
A. Drury set in open-pedimented aedicule with Composite pilasters, raised relief
lettering bearing Society's motto etc to 2nd and 3rd storeys, and console
cornice beneath copper-domed clock tower with segmental pediments set on
half-columns to angled corners; first floor has 2-light semi-circular arched
windows with decorative spandrels revealed in segmental-arched moulded
architraves with pilasters; similar semi-circular arched architraves to second
floor windows; bays are separated by Composite pilasters with enriched ornament
to first-floor console cornice with enriched panelled frieze and to 2nd floor
dentilled cornice with scrolled frieze; gabled outer bays, faced in terracotta,
have canted bay windows with balustrade parapet and fluted Composite pilasters.
2-storey, 5-bay outer bays, in similar style, each have balustrade parapet and
central scroll-pedimented dormer with Composite pilasters flanking Ipswich
window. The style of this building consciously imitated Harrods of
Knightsbridge."