There’s a replica of Denmark’s famous Jelling Stone next to Regent’s Park
Around the side of a Victorian church next to Regents Park you can find a very large decorated runestone celebrating the creation of Denmark as a nation state.
It’s actually a replica of Denmark’s famous Jelling Stone, and was installed next to Regents Park in 1955. Although it looks like stone, it’s a plaster cast, made in 1948 for the V&A Museum’s exhibition of Danish heritage. The stone wasn’t inside the exhibition but mounted on the pavement outside as an advert for what was inside the museum.
There’s a short clip of the stone outside the museum here.
It later seemed to move around a bit to St Paul’s Cathedral and then the Guildhall Museum before ending up next to The Regent’s Park.
The location isn’t random, though. Although the church it sits next to was built in 1826-28 for the Royal Foundation of St Katharine, they moved out in 1948, and the church was taken over by the Danish Church, which is still the occupant.
So, the wandering plaster cast of the Danish Jenning Stone, in need of a suitable long-term home, found one next to the Danish Church.
The copy looks slightly different from the original, as the UK version is brightly painted. The original was also brightly painted, but over the centuries the paint had flaked away, but just enough remained for the replica to be painted as the original would have looked.
Being next to the Danish Church is doubly apt, though. While the Jelling Stone is Danish, it also explicitly mentions Denmark’s conversion from Norse paganism and the process of Christianization, alongside a depiction of the crucified Christ; it is, therefore, popularly dubbed “Denmark’s baptismal certificate.”
So, putting the stone next to the church was an inspired decision.
You can find the replica Jelling Stone next to St Katharine’s, The Danish Church on the topeastern end of Outer Circle next to Regent’s Park, a short walk from London Zoo.
It’s outside, so relatively easy to see, although only through a stone wall which is sometimes unlocked to get up close, but if locked, you can still look at it from a slight distance.
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