Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901)

Biography

Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1837-1901. In 1840 she married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha with whom she had nine children. Albert died in 1861 and Queen Victoria entered a lengthy mourning period and neglected many of her royal duties, leading to a rise in British republicanism. However, the length of her reign and her proclamation as Empress of India in 1877 brought prestige to the British monarchy and saw it rise in popularity.

Victoria was the last monarch of House Hanover and gave her name to the era. In 1877 she was proclaimed Empress of India by the government of Benjamin Disraeli. Victoria’s reign lasted 63 years and was the longest of any British Monarch before Elizabeth II, having both a golden and diamond jubilee.

While Victoria was on the throne, the British empire expanded enormously. It is reckoned that British soldiers were fighting campaigns somewhere in the empire in almost every year of her reign.

Context

The statue was moved from the Town Hall in 1937 to make room for the expanding city and new roads. Victoria’s statue was a tribute to a Queen who gave her name to an entire age and was seen as a symbol of strength and stability. However, over time the statue’s reception has changed.

Victoria was once seen as powerful and respectable view of Victorian middle-class morality. More recently, in the light of the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Victoria’s connections to empire have made her controversial and in 2020 the statue was vandalised with phrases such as ‘BLM’ and ‘slave owner’ in protest against her imperial past.

The statue

Date Erected:
27 November 1905

Artist:
George Frampton (1860 - 1928) and architect Leonard Stokes.

Commissioned / funded by:
Commissioned in 1901 by the council to commemorate Queen Victoria’s reign and a public subscription fund was set up which raised nearly £8,000.

Format and materials:
Bronze figures on a plinth, situated on a pedestal of Portland Stone.

Location:
The statue was originally displayed outside of Town Hall but now resides on Woodhouse Moor.

Description:
Consists of a bronze figure of Queen Victoria with her sceptre resting sat on top of a Portland stone plinth with figures of ‘Peace’ and ‘Industry’ on either side (‘Industry’ currently (2022) being restored). The words ‘India’ ‘Australia’ ‘Canada’ and ‘Africa’ are also engraved onto the statue on scrolled plaques to celebrate British Imperial expansion during the Victoria era. The back of the statue has the appearance of a radiant sun to symbolise ‘The Empire where the sun never sets’

Sources

• Grever, M. (2002). ‘Colonial Queens: Imperialism, Gender and the Body Politic During the Reign of Victoria and Wilhelmina’. Journal of Low Countries Studies. 26 (1), 99-114.
• Historic England. (2021). MEMORIAL TO QUEEN VICTORIA, WOODHOUSE LANE.
• Strachey, L (1998). Queen Victoria. New York: BRACE AND COMPANY. 1-93.
• Weintraub, S. (2012). Albert [Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

[Image by 'Chemical Engineer' via Wikimedia Commons]