Description

ROYAL VICTORIA PARK
656-1/29/1443

Victoria Column
(Formerly Listed as:
VICTORIA PARK
Victoria Column)
11/08/72

GV II*

Obeslik with tripartite base, set within circular balustrade. Dated 1837. By G.P. Manners, city architect. Triangular section obelisk, approx. 10m high, with flattened arrises, base sweeps out, beneath band of Vitruvian scroll moulding; large triangular plinth (inscribed at top of each facet) with small wreaths to arrises. Thick egg-and-dart cornice surrounds main shaft of plinth. On west side is a low profile relief of the Princess, set within an oak-leaf wreath with fillets; south west and north west facets have square recesses with the crests of Albert (in bronze) and Victoria (in stone). Widened arrises sweep out to form bases of three lions couchant on stepped plinths. Whole enclosed by balustraded circle. Inscribed on east side 'VICTORIA. Her Majesty Queen Victoria married to His Royal Highness PRINCE ALBERT OF SAXE COBURG AND GOTHA February 10 1840'. Inscribed on south-west face 'The Inhabitants and Visitors of Bath to the PRINCESS VICTORIA on the Attainment of her Majority 24th May 1837'. Under his arms is further inscription 'PRINCE CONSORT ALBERT THE GOOD. Born 1819 Died 1861 aged 42'. North-west face inscribed 'Completed October 1837 in the first Year of the Reign of QUEEN VICTORIA. VIVAT REGINA'. Beneath her arms is further inscription 'HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA and EMPRESS OF INDIA. Born May 1819 Died January 1901 aged 81 and Reigned 63 Years'.
HISTORY: This memorial was raised to commemorate not the accession, but the coming-of-age of Princess Victoria: it was actually inaugurated on her Coronation Day, 28th June 1838. Of great importance as a key visual incident in Royal Victoria Park, as a striking Neo-classical monument, and as the earliest of the numerous public monuments erected to Queen Victoria. Early designs by Manners included a fountain and the replacement of the lions with dolphins. The design owes something to one of 1827 by Henry Goodridge for a commemorative lamp post, also triangular in plan with sentinel lions (illus. In `Beyond Mr Pulteney¿s Bridge¿ 1987 exhib. Cat., 35). Victoria Park was laid out in 1830 on the former Barton Fields, an area of common land and was opened by the Duchess of Kent with her daughter, Princess Victoria, on October 23rd 1830. It was the country's first municipal park. SOURCES: Bath History: Whalley R: The Royal Victoria Park: Bath: 1994-: 147-169; Neil Jackson, 'Nineteenth Century Bath. Architects and Architecture' (1991)

Listing NGR: ST7420565274

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532215

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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