'Peter Pan' by Sir George Frampton

Walking through Kensington Gardens, near the Long Water, you will discover this bronze sculpture of Peter Pan.

J.M. Barrie lived nearby, on Bayswater Road, and said that Kensington Gardens inspired his stories and so commissioned a statue that was designed by Sir George Frampton, 

J.M. Barrie was said to be disappointed with the final sculpture, complaining that it "didn't show the Devil in Peter".

The statue stands 14 feet (4.3 m) in height and has a life-sized Peter, at about the size of an 8 years old, playing 'Pan Pipes' atop what looks like a twisting tree trunk, that is covered in fairies, mice, rabbits and squirrels.

J.M. Barrie had the statue erected on the night of April 30, 1912, without fanfare and, more importantly, without permission. 

The following day, May 1, J.M. Barrie published a notice in The Times newspaper: 

"There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning. Down by the little bay on the south-western side of the tail of the Serpentine they will find a May-day gift by Mr J.M. Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around. It is the work of Sir George Frampton, and the bronze figure of the boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived."

The statue stands on the spot where Peter Pan lands in the 1902 book 'The Little White Bird'. 

J.M. Barrie gave the statue to the city of London.

In 1928, the statue was 'tarred and feathered' by vandals.