Peter Pan has had many lives since J.M. Barrie’s play became a London stage hit in 1904, including a Disney animated feature and multiple Broadway runs, but one of them is right here in our neighbourhood, where he lives on, a bronze boy dressed in leaves, piping on his homemade flute, in the 4.3m high bronze statue that has stood for close to one hundred years at the north-west corner of St. Clair and Avenue Road.
Dedicated to the “spirit of children at play,” it was a gift to the city from the College Heights Association in 1929. Over the years, many small hands have rubbed favourite parts of the sculpture; you can see the bronze gleaming through the green patina on a rabbit’s ears, the tail of a squirrel, the nose of a mouse, and the fairies’ wings.
The Toronto statue is a cast from the original, commissioned by J.M. Barrie from George Frampton, a sculptor famous in his time. Barrie arranged for the first statue to be placed in London’s Kensington Gardens, near the Serpentine, at midnight. He wanted it to appear as if by magic, so local children might think the fairies had left it there. London park authorities, who would most likely never have approved a new statue in the park, simply looked the other way — a sign of Peter Pan’s enormous popularity, the Harry Potter of his time.
In 2029, the sculpture will mark one hundred years in our neighbourhood. One hopes we can plan a proper celebration. In the meantime, go and have a look, take some little people with you, and have a rub while you’re there!