Through Hyde Park on the way to Kensingt

19 Jun, England ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F

With dogs woofing, we left Harrods and since Kensington Palace wasn't far away we decided to take that little walk in 90 degrees weather. Not the best of plans but we did it! Along the way, we passed the Albert Memorial from the back side and saw the Royal Albert Hall where all kinds of music stars perform - Adele, the Stones , the Who, etc. Quite the memorial - "The Albert Memorial is one of London’s grandest and most ornate monuments — a stunning tribute to Prince Albert, the beloved husband of Queen Victoria.

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🏛️ What It Is
• Location: Kensington Gardens, directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall.
• Commissioned by: Queen Victoria in 1861 after Prince Albert’s death from typhoid at age 42.
• Unveiled: 1872 (though Albert’s statue was added in 1875).

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✨ Design Highlights
• Architect: Sir George Gilbert Scott (also designed the Midland Grand Hotel at St. Pancras).
• Style: High Victorian Gothic, incredibly elaborate.
• Central Feature: A seated gilded statue of Prince Albert holding the catalogue of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which he helped organize.

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🌍 Symbolism
• At the base are four large sculptural groups representing the continents:
• Europe, Asia, Africa, and America
• Around the base of the canopy are 169 life-sized figures of:
• Artists, musicians, architects, poets, and philosophers, such as Shakespeare, Beethoven, Raphael, and Newton.

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🧭 Good to Know
• It faces the Royal Albert Hall, also named in his honour.
• Easily accessible by walking through Hyde Park or from South Kensington or High Street Kensington stations.
• The statue was re-gilded in the 1990s, and the monument was cleaned and restored to its full

Once we made it to the Palace, we immediately noticed the statue of Queen Victoria , sculpted by her daughter no less! "The statue of Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace is a striking and historically significant monument — especially because it was sculpted by her own daughter.

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👑 About the Statue
• Location: Directly in front of Kensington Palace, overlooking the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens.
• Sculptor: Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, who was a talented artist and one of the first female sculptors formally trained at the Royal Academy.
• Unveiled: 1893, while Queen Victoria was still alive.
• Material: White marble, set on a stone pedestal.

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🖼️ What It Shows
• Queen Victoria is seated, dressed in her coronation robes, holding the orb and sceptre, symbols of royal authority.
• The design presents her as a young woman — a nod to her early reign, reflecting her youth when she became queen in 1837.

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📍 Historical Significance
• Kensington Palace was Queen Victoria’s birthplace and childhood home. She lived there until she became queen at age 18.
• The statue commemorates her deep ties to the palace and her long reign.

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🧭 Visiting Tips
• You can view the statue freely from the outside courtyard — no ticket is required.
• If you go inside Kensington Palace, you’ll find exhibits on Victoria’s life, including her childhood rooms and displays of her clothing ."Baca lagi

Lihat terjemahan

Pengembara Beautiful shot — that’s the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, London. About the Memorial: • Commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who died in 1861. • Unveiled in 1875, it’s one of the grandest and most ornate high-Victorian monuments in the UK. • The centerpiece is the seated gilded statue of Prince Albert, facing the Royal Albert Hall (which he helped conceive). • Surrounding him are allegorical figures representing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, along with others symbolizing the arts and sciences. It’s a powerful symbol of Victorian grief, grandeur, and pride in progress.

21/07/25BalasTerjemah

Pengembara What a fantastic close-up! You’re looking at the back of the Prince Albert statue in the Albert Memorial, and in the background is the dome of the Royal Albert Hall — perfectly aligned as it was intentionally designed to be. Notable Details in This View: • The statue of Prince Albert is gilded in gold leaf, and even from the back, you can see the fine detail in the drapery and the inscription panels. • The white frieze running around the base features over 160 sculpted figures of prominent artists, poets, architects, and musicians — this side likely includes writers and musicians. • The black statues surrounding the canopy represent virtues and sciences, while above the arch are mosaics symbolizing the arts and sciences that Prince Albert championed. It’s one of the most elaborately symbolic Victorian memorials in existence. Did you get a look at the front of the statue as well, where Albert holds the catalogue of the Great Exhibition of 1851?

21/07/25BalasTerjemah

Pengembara That’s a great shot of one of the four corner sculptures that surround the Albert Memorial — each one representing a different continent. The one you’ve captured here is “Africa.” Here’s how we know: • The camel is a key symbol of the African group. • The central seated female figure represents the personification of Africa. • Surrounding her are figures in classical attire (with one seated man appearing to hold a staff or weapon), representing different aspects of African culture and people as imagined through 19th-century European eyes. The other three groups represent Asia (with an elephant), America (with a bison), and Europe (with a bull). Each group reflects Victorian-era artistic interpretations of the continents, and while beautiful and monumental, they also reflect the imperial attitudes of the time. Still, they are stunning examples of 19th-century allegorical sculpture.

21/07/25BalasTerjemah

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