Just around the corner from my office in Throgmorton Avenue is a street called “Austin Friars”, on the corner of which is this statue.
The Augustine “Austin” Friars were a monastic order based here whose land was confiscated during the Reformation and handed over to Thomas Cromwell, where according to a plaque he plotted the downfall of Anne Boleyn and in which much of the action in Wolf Hall would have taken place.
I noticed one morning that the statue had been defaced by someone with a marker pen adding clown eye make-up to it and a natty bowler hat.
The hat has long gone, but the make-up still persists – in fact in a recent leaflet published by the Corporation included a photo of it, with the comedy eyes clearly shown.
Perhaps the friar was meant to be sharing wine with the eminent humanist scholar Erasmus – he stayed here in 1513 and famously refused to settle his bill because of the poor quality of the wine he was served!
