Majestic Bronze Lions Greet Visitors to the Hall

May 15, 2020 | Holkhome | 3 minute read

You’d be hard pushed not to notice the two rather large and impressive lion and lioness statues positioned to greet you at the north entrance to the hall. Our archivist, Lucy Purvis, delves deeper into the reasons for their existence…

Before 1865, guests visiting Holkham Hall approached via the south gates, travelling in their carriages up the long drive before sweeping around the obelisk and being greeted by the beauty and grandeur of the hall and formal gardens. However, when the railway arrived in 1865 the new passenger station was situated partway down Lady Anne’s Drive, so many visitors, including the Prince of Wales (who had recently acquired the Sandringham estate and was a regular guest at Holkham), started to arrive from the north.

The majestic lioness statue

Although the entrance vestibule had been added in the 1850s, there was no getting away from the fact that the north side of the hall had a rather austere exterior. The arrival of the roaring lion and majestic lioness were intended to add a sense of dignity and drama to visitors on their approach to the hall.

Frustratingly, there is no surviving correspondence in the Holkham archives relating to the commissioning of the lions or why lions were chosen in the first place, but it can be assumed that the 2nd Earl of Leicester was looking for a suitably impressive feature.

The impressive lion statue

He had previously commissioned Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-90) to sculpt a marble monument, to be placed in Holkham church in memory of his first wife, Juliana, Countess of Holkham (1825-70) and Boehm was commissioned again, this time for a pair of bronzes for the north front. In 1872 Boehm exhibited the Holkham lions, alongside a marble statue of Queen Victoria, at the London International Exhibition in South Kensington. Later that year the lions, like many visitors, arrived by train and were erected on their sloping rocky outcrops. The lions have enjoyed their role of welcoming visitors to the estate ever since.