For hundreds of years Central London was the center of public sculpture. More recently, of course, “many people, including some serious art historians, have thought it’s artistically retrograde and uninteresting.” A new book maintains that the statuary tells the history of the city. “What is incredible about the sculpture in the Square Mile is its sheer diversity. It reflects the different roles of the City: the preoccupation with the sea because London was a major world port and the heart of the Empire; journalism, publishing and the media because of Fleet Street; the trades because of all the markets; finance because of the banks and the Stock Market.”