This building has a proliferation of waymarks (some used, some possible), it really is a great building.
Well worth a visit if you are in the area.
This time we have five beautiful Reliefs at the lower front entrance of the Town Hall.
Being above the lower doors they are the perfect height for studying and photographing.
Health - Recreation – Religion – Study – Music
The Braithwaite Hall above Croydon library is adorned with as much symbolic sculpture as could reasonably be fitted in, commissioned from Edwin Roscoe Mullins, a Londoner who studied at the Royal Academy and then in Vienna where he shared a studio with Onslow Ford.
The representative figures continue the theme of untilitarian service. From left to right, they are Health, Study, Religion, Recreation and Music, all helpfully labeled.
I particularly like Health. She holds a snake, the traditional symbol of healthcare, completely ignoring the way it is slithering over her lap. Her other hand holds a smoking censer.
On her right, a small girl is watched by her mother as she drinks from a public fountain. On her left, workmen lay the drains.
Education is represented by a number of lads from the Whitgift School, one being tutored by the Archbishop (I think).
Am I reading too much into this, or are the figures surrounding the allegorical female figure a bit subversive? The languid posture of the boy on the left, leaning on his mother's shoulder, radiates boredom and disbelief. On the right, Mother seems to be almost forcing her son onto his knees to pray.
Recreation. Dancing for the girls and bloody cricket for the lads. So predictable.
Finally, Music is represented by St Cecilia with her organ, a violinist and cello on the left and a trio of choirboys on the right.
The above text was taken from the excellent Ornamental Passions website
here
More info here on the Clocktower and library
here
And finally the sculptor himself Edwin Roscoe Mullins (1848-1907)
can be found
here
Many thanks to the above websites for the information provided.