The answer is, inevitably, on the banks of the Thames and comes in the form of a statue, and a rather odd statue at that. Peter stands in the middle, tall and proud, but with an incredibly small head. Then, to his right is a small and dumpy character with a big hat who is holding a globe and has a cherub on his shoulder. Oh and on the left is an empty chair, whilst the whilst whole thing is surrounded by two replica cannons.
It all looks frankly bonkers, and the automatic instinct is that it was made by someone who didn’t particularly like Peter. In fact the statue was actually a gift from the people of Russia, for whom Peter remains one of the great rulers of their nation. Their love and affection for the long deceased tsar knows no bounds; a kind of combination of the Queen and Winston Churchill. This strange piece of art was clearly supposed to be a tribute.
Designed by two Russian sculptors, Viacheslav Bukhaev and Mikhail Chemiakin, the whole thing was unveiled in 2001. Why? Well to celebrate 300 years since Peter’s visit to London of course. For in 1698 Peter travelled to the country incognito to learn about ship building. For three months Peter worked at the Deptford Dockyards by day, and held drunken parties by night, before heading off to such glamorous cities as Leipzig, Vienna and Manchester. Quite what he would have made of the statue commemorating his visit to Deptford, we will never know. Although if you asked him in the evening, maybe you’d get a slightly more favourable response.