Bust

Sanctuary - head on left - Victoria

Erection date: 1854

Site: Westminster Sanctuary (4 memorials)

SW1, Broad Sanctuary, The Sanctuary, 1-8 Broad Sanctuary

The building is Grade II listed, a terrace of Bath stone buildings incorporating gateway to Dean's Yard. 1853-54 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Some sources say these were built as houses which seems unlikely but they are certainly now used as offices.

Niches in the turrets, at first floor, house two very similar statues. The spandrels of the gateway are decorated with two roundels with portrait heads, one of which is crowned. These all seem to represent particular individuals but we can find no information, so we have to guess.

The statues are crowned and each clutches a model building, with slightly different fenestration. So we think they are the two kings central to the creation of Westminster Abbey: Edward the Confessor who, in 1042-52, (re)built St Peter's Abbey here, and Henry III who, in 1245, began the building of the current Abbey. Comparative beard lengths seem to corroborate our theory.

And the two heads must represent Victoria and Albert: the female wears a crown and the male doesn't, the date of the building, they even look like some of their portraits.

The memorial column in our photo is covered on its own page: Westminster School - old boys.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Sanctuary - head on left - Victoria

Subjects commemorated i

Queen Victoria

Reigned: 1837-1901, 64 years. Born Kensington Palace. Daughter of Edward, Duk...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Sanctuary - head on left - Victoria

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Old Middlesex Sessions House

Old Middlesex Sessions House

EC1, Clerkenwell Green

Above the central window, this cameo-type profile bust of the King is draped in ribbons and swags of oak and laurel leaves. Carved by Ros...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Sir John Cass - Charity boy - bust

Sir John Cass - Charity boy - bust

EC3, Jewry Street, 31

Building by A. W. Cooksey, 1900. The small busts of the charity children recall the statues which flanked the original Cass statue in its...

1 subject commemorated
Chaucer bust - SW1

Chaucer bust - SW1

SW1, Parliament Street, 48, Red Lion Inn

These two busts are above the second floor bay windows, Dickens on Parliament Street, Chaucer on the return in Derby Gate. The building ...

1 subject commemorated
T P O'Connor bust

T P O'Connor bust

EC4, Fleet Street, 78, Chronicle House

2024: This whole block is a building site so we have marked these memorials as being lost.  Possibly they will be reinstated when the dev...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
William Booth bust

William Booth bust

E1, Mile End Road, Mile End Waste

As so often, Ornamental Passions have a good post on this sculpture.

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators