The Royal Parks has said the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park is “highly offensive” because it reflects a “Victorian view of the world”.
Standing 176 feet tall, the memorial was built by Queen Victoria to honor her late husband, Prince Albert, in 1872 and has since become one of London’s most recognizable landmarks.
The colossal monument features a golden statue of the prince alongside four groups of large statues representing four continents around the world. These are the statues that, according to the Royal Park’s website, are inspired by “racial stereotypes”.
Asia is represented by a woman on an elephant, America by a Native American with a bison, and Africa by a woman on a camel. The African sculpture also includes a white European woman reading a book to a member of a black African tribe.
Victorian guides of the time claim that this detail of the African statue was intended to represent him “rising from barbarism.”
The colossal monument features a golden statue of the prince alongside four groups of large statues representing four continents around the world. These are the statues that, according to the Royal Park’s website, are inspired by “racial stereotypes”.
The colossal monument features a golden statue of the prince alongside four groups of large statues representing four continents around the world. These are the statues that, according to the Royal Park’s website, are inspired by “racial stereotypes”.
Standing 54 metres tall, the memorial was built by Queen Victoria to honour her late husband, Prince Albert, in 1872 and has since become one of London’s most recognisable landmarks.
The Albert Memorial’s Asia sculpture depicts a woman riding an elephant. The Royal Parks said the new information was added last year as part of an attempt to “regularly review and update the information”
The website states: “Although the Empire has traditionally been celebrated as a symbol of British supremacy, many today see this view as problematic because colonialism often relied on the oppression and exploitation of peoples, resources and cultures.”
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, The Royal Parks said the new information was added last year as part of an attempt to “regularly review and update information about our landscapes and heritage features, across all our parks, to enhance the visitor experience”.
In July 2022, as part of the memorial’s 150th anniversary, special tours were allowed. Robert Hardman of the Daily Mail was also able to see for himself the network of tunnels that lie beneath the monument.
He wrote at the time: “THidden underground, accessible only via a locked manhole, the Royal Parks charity’s engineering team takes me inside a vast vaulted labyrinth stretching endlessly into the darkness.
“It goes on and on like the catacombs – until you realize that you are actually going around in circles around a series of concentric circles.
“It is in itself a monument to the technical rigour and pride that characterised Victorian engineering.”
The memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1862, a year after Prince Albert’s death.
It was designed by 19th-century architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, the man behind classic Victorian buildings such as St Pancras Station Hotel and the Foreign Office.
In 1983, Whitehall revealed plans to demolish the memorial, which was saved when the Victorian Society and others ensured that £11 million was raised for a complete renovation. In 1998, Queen Elizabeth II unveiled the newly renovated memorial.
