# Queen Victoria Statues Around the World



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*The sun never sets on statues of Queen Victoria
Not-so-merry monarch still stands in Australia, America, Africa, Asia *
Toronto Star
17 May 2008










She's everywhere. Wherever you travel around the world, you're likely sooner or later to stumble upon a statue of the "Queen Empress" upon whose empire the sun is said never to have set and who holds the record for longest reigning monarch - 63 years and 7 months from June, 1837, to January, 1901.

Victoria is arguably also the ruler with the most statues, everywhere from a prime piece of London real estate outside Buckingham Palace, to a more modest plot in the Ghanaian town of Cape Coast where a flock of goats grazes at her feet.

She sits in Toronto, stands in Hamilton and lost her head, quite literally, in Quebec City.

In 1963, separatist radicals blew up the three-metre-tall bronze statue in - where else? - Victoria Square, decapitating Victoria in the process. Leonard Cohen, in his novel Beautiful Losers, refers to them placing the explosives in her lap.

Newspapers reported that the blast was heard all over the city and the head was found 20 metres from the torso.

Head and body have been displayed separately from time to time at the Musee de la Civilization, says spokesperson Serge Poulin, and are presently in storage along with some 200,000 other museum artifacts.

But a plan, put forward a couple of years ago, to put the statue back together in time for Quebec City's 400th anniversary this year has come to naught, says Poulin. For one thing, a couple of vital chunks of metal were destroyed in the explosion and the royal head no longer fits on the royal shoulders.

The statue was erected in Quebec City in 1897 to commemorate Victoria's 60 years on the throne. All over the Empire, similar effigies were being installed.

Most have fared better than Quebec's, though the Irish - many of whom resented what they saw as the imposition of the British monarchy upon them - gave away a statue of the queen. It stood for years outside the Parliament building in Dublin. But in 1947, the government of the republic put it into storage. In the late 1980s, it was sent to Australia where it now graces the front of the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. At least Her Majesty has company there - a nearby wishing well features a bronze sculpture of Islay, said to have been her favourite dog.

Many of her statues show Victoria in her later years, when she famously was "not amused." She certainly wouldn't have been entertained by our Victoria Day holiday - also the celebration of the present queen's official birthday.

But there's more to remembering Queen Victoria than statues stained with verdigris and pigeon poop. There are streets, squares, mountains, arguably the world's largest waterfall, cities ....

Even the United States, which won its freedom from the yoke of British monarchy, has a town named after the Queen. Victoria, Virginia - founded as a railway town in 1906 and with a population of about 2,000 - was named by industrialist, financier and railroader Henry Rogers, born in 1840 and a fan of the British monarch.

There are several other U.S. Victorias and four in Romania, though it's questionable who they were named after.

But in Asia, Africa, Australia or even Antarctica - Victoria Land, a region discovered in 1841 by British explorer James Clark Ross - you can be pretty certain who their inspiration was.

Honouring the sovereign can, of course, be done indirectly. Who do you think the "regina" was in the naming of Regina, for example ? One of the nicest statues of the monarch sits on the lawn in front of the B.C. parliament building in the Inner Harbour of Victoria, B.C. It's the young queen, not yet an empress and without the weight of her years or her empire upon her slender shoulders.

At first glance she looks solemn but her crown is at a bit of a rakish angle and her lips seem almost to be breaking into a Mona Lisa smile.

At what?

That must remain Victoria's secret.

Bill Taylor is a feature writer with the Star.


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## Chadoh25 (Dec 28, 2007)

God Bless the Queen!


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

There was a minor incident with the Queen Victoria statue in HK back in the mid 90s when an artist threw red paint at it.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Well, that's nothing compared to the decapitation the article talked about.


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## Harkeb (Oct 12, 2004)

In South Africa (sorry for the small pics)
Port Elizabeth








Cape Town- infront of Parliament


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Toronto


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Pollution turns famous India Raj monument yellow *
16 July 2007

KOLKATA, India, July 16 (Reuters) - Poisonous fumes, dust and smog are staining the white-marbled Queen Victoria Memorial, one of India's best-known landmarks from the days of the British empire, a leading environmental agency warned on Monday.

The monument, built a century ago when Kolkata - then known as Calcutta - was the capital of British-ruled India, is turning yellow, according to the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI).

NEERI sent a report last week to the Kolkata High Court recommending measures, including limiting traffic around the Queen Victoria Memorial, to save it from further destruction.

"Our findings were crystal clear and crisp and we believe and trust that our observation will help," a senior NEERI official, who requested not to be named, said on Monday.

Built in the early 20th century, the memorial houses one of the world's longest paintings -- an elephant procession -- among some 3,000 exhibits in 25 galleries.

A bronze statue of Queen Victoria is enthroned at the entrance and the dome is inscribed with the text of her imperial proclamation speech.

"The white marble is turning yellowish due to pollution, and plasters have peeled off in many chamber walls," Bimal Bandyopadhyay, a senior archaeologist said.

This is not the first Indian monument to face problems from growing air contamination. A parliamentary report this year warned that India's Taj Mahal was turning yellow due to pollution.


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## diegodbs (Mar 12, 2008)

> She's everywhere. Wherever you travel around the world, you're likely sooner or later to stumble upon a statue of the "Queen Empress" upon whose empire the sun is said never to have set and who holds the record for longest reigning monarch - 63 years and 7 months from June, 1837, to January, 1901.


Things that perhaps Bill Taylor -feature writer with the Toronto Star- should know: 

1. How many statues of the "Queen Empress" would you stumble upon if you walked from Madrid to Vladivostok (9,700 km in a straight line)? Maybe none. That means it is much much much later than sooner. Does Mr. Taylor think that 9,700 km is a short distance?

2. During Philip II's lifetime, the Spanish Empire was the first one to be called "the first empire on which the sun never set". That happened almost 3 centuries before the Queen Empress reigned. All empires use propaganda, the Spanish empire and the English empire; in both cases it was true that they were empires on which "the sun never set" but our propaganda was 300 years earlier.

3. Pharaoh Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, is often regarded as Egypt's greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh. According to Manetho or Manethon, an egyptian historian and priest, Ramesses II ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC[6] for a total of 66 years and 2 months.
This certainly happened a long long time ago, but a "feature writer with the Toronto Star" should know these "details", shouldn't he?
Queen Victoria doesn't hold the record for longest reigning monarch. Her reign as Queen lasted 63 years and seven months, longer than that of any other _British_ monarch to date. It is as simple as this, he only needed to add the word "British" to the sentence.

The problem is that Mr Taylor needs to write an article about the greatest Queen in the whole Solar System. So what is the importance of the distance Madrid-Vladivostok as compared to the Solar System? What is the importance of a long dead Egyptian pharaoh whom nobody remembers? Did any Spanish Empire ever existed?


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## ferge (Aug 1, 2003)

We have a nice one in Southport, NW England.. It's the only statue I've seen in the area of a monarch, or person come to think.. Maybe I'm not being very observant, I shall try and get a picture next week mind.


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## Looking/Up (Feb 28, 2008)

diegodbs said:


> Things that perhaps Bill Taylor -feature writer with the Toronto Star- should know:
> 
> 1. How many statues of the "Queen Empress" would you stumble upon if you walked from Madrid to Vladivostok (9,700 km in a straight line)? Maybe none. That means it is much much much later than sooner. Does Mr. Taylor think that 9,700 km is a short distance?
> 
> ...


1. "Maybe none" ...? What a useless first point, and your example is just silly. Moreover, you can't even validate this silly example but admit that you may not see such a statue, but you can't be sure.

2. That's very interesting, but really of no importance to the article or the topic at hand. We are talking about statues of a dead queen, so why is there this need to seek awareness for the Spanish empire?

3. Congratulations to Ramesses II for his long reign, and also to other monarchs such as Louis XIV of France who reigned for longer than 66 years. Imagine, a journalist made an error. There's no need to crucify him, though.

I, for one, find it fascinating how many statues there are of Queen Victoria. More than the actual statues, though, it's amazing to consider how this one woman has so much influence to warrant the number of statues in her honour. It also speaks to a shared connection between people from Canada, Australia, UK, India, South Africa, and elsewhere where a shared history is present, reminded in the statue of this monarch.


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## Virginia Lover (Aug 5, 2008)

God Save Our Gracious Queen


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## Overground (Apr 11, 2005)

Great thread!

Here's the statue of Queen Victoria that graces the front lawn of the Parliament Buildings at the Inner Harbour at Victoria, British Columbia. The gold statue on top of the Parliament Buildings is Captain George Vancouver, Royal Navy explorer and once side kick to Capt. Cook. You can also find Cook's statue right over from Victoria's in front of the Empress Hotel.

















Small pic, but the reverse side with the Inner Harbour and Empress hotel across the way.









pics from Flickr.


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## Overground (Apr 11, 2005)

Here is another statue of Queen Victoria in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Brisbane


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Victoria Park, Hong Kong. Don't have a picture though.


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## Overground (Apr 11, 2005)

diegodbs said:


> Things that perhaps Bill Taylor -feature writer with the Toronto Star- should know:
> 
> 1. How many statues of the "Queen Empress" would you stumble upon if you walked from Madrid to Vladivostok (9,700 km in a straight line)? Maybe none. That means it is much much much later than sooner. Does Mr. Taylor think that 9,700 km is a short distance?


Actually, one in Malta and a memorial in Cyprus. The author was not suggesting you walk in a straight line between two points on the globe to run into a statue of Queen Victoria or at least something named after her. He said, _"Wherever you travel around the world, you're likely sooner or later to stumble upon a statue"._ You need to read more carefully.


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## Overground (Apr 11, 2005)

There may not be Queen Victoria statues, memorials, or monuments in central/eastern Europe to Vladisvostok but how about everywhere else in the world like - 

Europe(UK, Malta, Cyprus) 

North America(Canada wide)

Caribbean(Bahamas, Jamaica, St Kitts) 

South America(Guyana)

Africa(South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe)

Indian Ocean(Seychelles)

Southern Asia(India)

Eastern Asia(Malaysia, China)

Australia/NZ


There's more too but I can't be arsed to look them up.


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## AltiusAltiusAltius (Sep 20, 2002)

*Sydney*


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## _00_deathscar (Mar 16, 2005)

Victoria Park, Hong Kong.


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## Overground (Apr 11, 2005)

^You beat me to it Great pics chaps!


Queen Victoria. Nassau, Bahamas - Parliament Square.








Inscription reads VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX 1887 - 1901








http://www.flickr.com/photos/scmikeburton/2779988774/


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## jmarwood (Aug 5, 2009)

*Perth, Western Australia [Kings Park]*










My photo, July 2009


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## No1_Saint (Jul 1, 2009)

*Melbourne Victoria Austalia*


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## jmarwood (Aug 5, 2009)

*Singapore - Queen Victoria Statue, Istana [President's Residence]*

Queen Victoria Statue, Istana, Singapore

The Chinese community presented the statue of Queen Victoria to the Governor, Sir Cecil Smith in the Jubilee Year (1889) of Her Majesty's rule as a memento of their loyal affections and gratitude for the benefit of her rule. The 6 foot high statue in Sicilian marble was the work of E. E. Geflowski and is one of the most lifelike statues of the Queen ever made. It used to be placed in the alcove of the State Room (then called Victoria Room) until the 1960s. It was then moved to the Victoria Memorial Hall and subsequently to the National Museum store in the mid-1980's. When located in 1994, the statue was found to have sustained damages to several parts, including the nose. The damages probably occurred during the various shifts over the years. The statue was restored in 1995 by a specialist sculpture conservator from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

http://www.istana.gov.sg/IstanaGrounds/QueenVictoriaStatue/


Since 1960, the Istana grounds have been opened to the public a few days every year so that Singaporeans and visitors can share the sprawling parkland. The Istana is a precious and important part of Singapore's history and heritage and has borne witness to Singapore's many historical milestones. Located along busy Orchard Road, the 100 over acres Istana Domain is a welcome green lung within the city. Within the Domain, there are several buildings of architectural and historical interest. They used to house the Governors and top administrators of Colonial Singapore. Today, as official residence of the President of Singapore, the Istana continues to be a symbol of authority.

http://www.istana.gov.sg/IstanaGrounds/Grounds/


For open days, check

http://www.istana.gov.sg/IstanaGrounds/OpenHouse/










Photo
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2168/2023762179_5f36c10eba.jpg?v=0


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## jmarwood (Aug 5, 2009)

*Queen Victoria statue, Parliament, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia*

This statue of Queen Victoria, after whom the colony of Victoria was named, dominates Queen’s Hall. The Hall was originally known as the “Great Hall”, but was renamed “Queen’s Hall” in 1887 to mark the fiftieth year of Queen Victoria’s reign.

Queen’s Hall, located between the two Legislative Chambers, is used for informal meetings as well as formal receptions and other functions. English sculptor Marshall Wood carved the Carrara marble statue in approximately 1876.

Although Queen Victoria would have been 57 years old when Wood carved the statue, he has portrayed her as a young queen. The statue is intended as an idealised portrait, symbolic of Victoria’s role as Empress of the British Empire. She is dressed in robes reminiscent of classical Rome and holds a wreath and the royal sceptre. Wood brought the statue to Melbourne, where it was displayed in the Public Library in Swanston Street. Parliament of Victoria purchased the statue at a cost of £3,000 and it was installed in the Great Hall, under Wood’s supervision, in 1882. It sits on a pedestal of polished Benambra granite porphyry from the Upper Murray district. 

The statue is supposed to have a reputation for bad luck. Two cracks can be seen in Her Majesty’s left arm. The sculptor’s name appears incorrectly as “Mashall” Wood. The statue’s left foot is forward, symbolic of war. Legend has it that the sculptor committed suicide upon learning of this embarrassing error, but there is no evidence to support this story. 

In 1913, Mr. E. A. Roberts, a Member of the House of Representatives (Federal Parliament used Victoria’s Parliament House from 1901 to 1927), had a heart attack while walking past the statue. As he collapsed, he hit his head on the base of the statue, where he promptly died.

http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/windowintime/place/moredetail.cfm?FeatureID=13


Photo

http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/windowintime/place/upload/statue.jpg


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## Skybean (Jun 16, 2004)

*Victoria Park, Hong Kong*


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## jmarwood (Aug 5, 2009)

*KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa [colony of Natal]*

KwaZulu-Natal Legislature 

The Legislature is situated in Pietermaritzburg in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The old building was demolished in 1887 to provide space for the legislative complex. The foundation stone of the new legislative building was laid on 21 June 1887, to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. The building was completed two years later. On 25 April 1889, the Governor of Natal, Sir Arthur Havelock, opened the first Legislative Council session in the new building.

The carved wooden throne dominates the Chamber. On the canopy can be seen the royal coat-of-arms of Great Britain, and below this the Natal colonial coat-of-arms.

The statue of Queen Victoria commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. 

http://www.kznlegislature.gov.za/Default.aspx?tabid=67


Photo

http://www.kznlegislature.gov.za/Portals/0/queen_victoria.png


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## Looking/Up (Feb 28, 2008)

Queen Victoria in the Library of Parliament in Ottawa.









http://www.flickr.com/photos/loneprimate/861897885/


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## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

Here are some of my pics of the statue of her in Hamilton, Ontario:


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## No1_Saint (Jul 1, 2009)

Looking/Up said:


> Queen Victoria in the Library of Parliament in Ottawa.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's a nice one.


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## No1_Saint (Jul 1, 2009)

jmarwood said:


> This statue of Queen Victoria, after whom the colony of Victoria was named, dominates Queen’s Hall. The Hall was originally known as the “Great Hall”, but was renamed “Queen’s Hall” in 1887 to mark the fiftieth year of Queen Victoria’s reign.
> 
> Queen’s Hall, located between the two Legislative Chambers, is used for informal meetings as well as formal receptions and other functions. English sculptor Marshall Wood carved the Carrara marble statue in approximately 1876.
> 
> ...


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## Looking/Up (Feb 28, 2008)

"I was born in 1927, the only child of middle-class parents, both English, and themselves born in the grotesquely elongated shadow, which they never rose sufficiently above history to leave, of that monstrous dwarf Queen Victoria."
- The Magus, by John Fowles


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## jmarwood (Aug 5, 2009)

*Perth, Western Australia [Kings Park]*

This is a photo I took in July 2009.


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## syedahsaninam (Aug 17, 2008)

*Lahore, Pakistan*


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## belfastuniguy (Aug 22, 2006)

Couple from Belfast

*Belfast City Hall*




















*Shankill Cemetery *

This statue, erected here by virtue of Belfast city council, once stood at the Royal Jubilee schools in Durham Street, Belfast. The status was then restored by the National Trust and was stored at Rowallane House until now.

The queen is depicted wearing a dress of Nottingham lace, the statue being made of Portland stone, a limestone material. The statue was carved in 1897 for the Queen's diamond jubilee, when she was 78 years old.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Adelaide, Australia


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## elsonic (Aug 21, 2003)

at least two in Montréal


in front of the McGill School of Music









CanadaenEspanol.ca on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/canada_en_espanol/sets/72157618076053013/with/3532554648/


at Square Victoria









wallyg on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/sets/72157622023927052/with/3819670595/


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## bumsmoke (Mar 14, 2006)

I think the white statues were constructed whilst the queen was alive and the black after she had died.


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## jerseyboi (Nov 25, 2007)

Built to mark her visit to Guernsey.

her title is Duke of Normandy in Guernsey even for a lady!
one of the oldest royal titles.










victoria tower to mark the visit is just across the way...


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## WpG_GuY (Dec 28, 2002)

In Winnipeg:


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## Overground (Apr 11, 2005)

I didn't notice before but the statues in the Parliament of Canada(Library of Parliament) and the Parliament of Victoria(Australia) are exactly the same. Both are by English sculptor Marshall Wood. After doing some reading on the Canadian one I came across this piece of info below. I wonder if the one at the Library of Parliament is the same one that was first in Toronto. Probably not but this means that there would be 3 duplicates of that statue in Canada at one point.

_Since Ottawa would not be named as Canada’s capital until a few years later, Toronto received a fine pair of Sevastopol cannons. The plan was to place them on either side of a statue of the Queen as the focal point of a new park on land formerly owned by King’s College.

In 1860, the City of Toronto did in fact install the cannons in the new park, and it was officially named Queen’s Park in honour of Victoria. William Denby, in his wonderful book Lost Toronto, tells us that the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) was on hand to lay a cornerstone to Queen Victoria. (This was more than 30 years before the Parliament Buildings opened, incidentally; Queen’s Park was just a park in those days.)

And Sculptor Marshall Wood did in fact create a statue of Queen Victoria. It was finally unveiled in 1871, with the Sevastopol cannons on either side. But in 1874, when Wood submitted his invoice for $7,500, city officials were taken aback; they apparently hadn’t realized the City would be asked to foot the bill – and such a high one at that! So they removed the statue and moved the cannons, which had formerly stood on the spot where there’s now a John A. Macdonald statue, to their current positions on either side of the main entranceway to the Legislative Buildings. A new, less costly statue, was commissioned and installed in 1902. It’s still there.

But whatever happened to the original statue? Queen’s Park staff has tried to locate it. At one time, it was thought that it might have been shipped to Quebec, because archival images show it was an exact duplicate of the one that now stands in Victoria Square on Old Montreal. However, that statue was already in place by 1872, so to this day no one knows where our copy of Wood’s Queen Victoria statue has gone.
_


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