Queen Victoria Memorial, Dalton Square, Lancaster

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iBase ID

276080

Reference identifier

nla20180615004

Title

Queen Victoria Memorial, Dalton Square, Lancaster

Place

Lancaster

Personal names

James Williamson, Baron Ashton, Herbert Hampton

General notes

The Queen Victoria Memorial in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, is a Grade II* listed building.It stands in the centre of Dalton Square, Lancaster facing Lancaster Town Hall. It was erected in 1906, being commissioned and paid for by James Williamson, 1st Baron Ashton.
The monument was designed by Herbert Hampton (1888-1927) a prolific sculptor and stone carver, who also designed the exterior of the Ashton Memorial in Lancaster.
The memorial is of Portland stone with bronze sculpture. A statue of Queen Victoria stands on a tall pedestal facing South, "looking a little pensively over the square," according to Nikolaus Pevsner.
The pedestal sits on a tall square plinth with rounded corners accompanied by four bronze lions at the ordinal points. Around the plinth is an unbroken bas relief frieze of bronze. At the corners, facing ordinal points, are four figurative sculptures, each depicting an allegory of Freedom (northeast), Truth (southeast), Wisdom (southwest) and Justice (northwest).[2] On the four cardinal faces are near life size likenesses of fifty three prominent British figures from the Victorian era. Of the fifty three persons depicted upon the plinth of the Queen Victoria Monument only two are women: George Eliot and Florence Nightingale. Five of those depicted were born in Lancaster or the surrounding area: William Turner, Edward Frankland, Richard Owen, William Whewell, James Williamson, 1st Baron Ashton.
At the time of construction, of the people featured on the monument, six were still alive: William Turner, Luke Fildes, Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Florence Nightingale and James Williamson, 1st Baron Ashton himself, the author of the monument.

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