Michael Faraday Memorial

The stainless steel box-shaped structure was designed by modern movement architect Rodney Gordon in 1959 and built in 1961, on the centre of what was the northern roundabout of the Elephant and Castle gyratory system.

It commemorates Michael Faraday's importance as a scientist and was placed at Elephant and Castle because Faraday's birthplace is nearby in Newington Butts.The interior of the construction contains a London Underground electrical substation for the Northern line and Bakerloo line (somewhat appropriate for a memorial to one of the great pioneers of electricity).

In 1996, the memorial was given a new lighting scheme designed by a local schoolgirl from English Martyrs R.C primary school, the result of a competition held by Blue Peter, the BBC children's programme.

Plans in the early 2000s to redevelop the Elephant and Castle included turning the roundabout into a peninsula and moving the Michael Faraday Memorial 400 metres south-east to the Walworth Road, where it would stand next to the Cuming Museum and possibly become part of a proposed science museum.

[1] In May 2012, the 16-year-old lighting scheme (which had long since stopped working) was replaced with a new disco theme[2] by Southwark Council, animating every evening after dark.