Hampstead Manor

A SCULPTED portrait of one of the country’s most celebrated molecular scientists is to be unveiled outside an exclusive housing development – although her family are a little baffled about the relevance of the location.

Mount Anvil, the property firm behind “Hampstead Manor” in Kidderpore Avenue – formerly the Westfield women’s college – is installing a “tondo sculpture” of Rosalind Franklin to mark International Women’s Month.

Her breakthrough photograph taken by the scientist played a crucial role in helping James Watson and Francis Crick discover the double helix structure of DNA, but she died of cancer before her colleagues won the Nobel Prize.

Rosalind Franklin and her niece, Shirley

Ms Franklin worked as a research fellow at King’s College in 1951 but is not understood to have had any association with the site that the artwork is placed at.

The huge Hampstead Manor development of “156 distinguished residences” – its one-bedroom flats are being sold for more than £1million – will also include a block named after her.

Rosalind’s niece Shirley Franklin said: “I put this in the Franklin [family] WhatsApp group, but nobody knew anything about it. The reaction from everybody was that it was very nice – but we don’t know about the accuracy of her having worked there.

“She worked for King’s but I’m not sure about this Westfield College part. As far as I’m aware she worked out of the basement of the Waterloo building. Rosalind grew up in Kensington, at the top of Portobello Road. So it’s a bit of a weird one.”

Shirley added: “I used to live round the corner, up in Platt’s Lane. That’s why I don’t think she worked there, because she would have popped round for tea.”

Despite the confusion over the link, Ms Franklin said her family were very pleased to receive the news of a tribute for her famous aunt announced on International Women’s Day.

She said: “I think Rosalind was incredibly modest, I don’t think she would need or want a statue. But the thought of a sculpture to a female scientist going up on Women’s Day, she certainly would have liked that.”

Rosalind Franklin has become a household name in recent years, and was further placed in the spotlight after Hollywood star Nicole Kidman played her in West End play Photograph 51.

Nicole Kidman starring in Photograph 51

But Ms Franklin added: “What is slightly annoying, everyone knows about Rosalind Franklin and DNA, but it was her work on viruses that is much more respected by scientists.

“It is much more significant than that she took that photograph. I would say that her work at this time of Covid is so relevant to the challenges today.”

The sculpture will be unveiled on March 15 followed by an online discussion with Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq, Baroness Garden of Frognal, and Cambridge lecturer and scientist Dr Nicky Dee.

Lisa Ravenscroft, from Mount Anvil, said: “Rosalind Franklin paved the way for women in science, but like many women at the time she didn’t get the recognition she deserved.

“I am thrilled the tondo will be positioned proudly on the building named after her at Hampstead Manor during International Women’s Month.”