Golders Hill Girl

The well-liked Golders Hill Girl was donated to the park in 1991 by the sculptor and medallist, Patricia Finch, who lived locally on the Finchley Road. She made the work at the suggestion of her husband, because the park had meant a great deal to her throughout her life, from having been taken there regularly in her pram, playing there as a child to later taking her own daughters to do the same.

The young girl, depicted wearing t-shirt and shorts in relaxed pose enjoying the sunshine having kicked off her flip flops, is based on the sculptor’s eldest daughter, Helen Scott Lidgett (1948–2012), who was an arts PR adviser. The flip flops are said to have been modelled on Finch’s own size 7s. One of the flip flops was unscrewed and stolen in 2003, requiring Lucie Skeaping, the sculptor’s younger daughter, to source a new pair in Camden market and organise replacements to be cast from them. Lucie has commented that her mother only occasionally sculpted full figures, more usually her practice concentrated on portrait heads.

The  City of London Corporation is responsible for the maintenance of this sculpture.

Bibl.: Juliet Rix, London’s Statues of  Women, London, 2025, pp. 74-75.

Location: Golders Hill Park, off North End Road, Barnet, London NW3.