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.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

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...

Read More

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

Colonial Office - B16 - Franklin

Colonial Office - B16 - Franklin

SW1, Whitehall, Foreign Office

Statues Hither and Thither has been invaluable in identifying some of the busts and most of the statues. The statues are not labelled and...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Temple Bar memorial - Chaucer

Temple Bar memorial - Chaucer

EC4, Fleet Street

This is the site of the 17th century Temple Bar entrance to the City of London. Having become an obstruction to circulation it was remove...

1 subject commemorated
Beatty bust

Beatty bust

WC2, Trafalgar Square

Left to right these busts are: Cunningham, Jellicoe and Beatty, that well known legal firm. (Unusually there is an error in the Margaret ...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Spencer Perceval bust - Pitzhangar

Spencer Perceval bust - Pitzhangar

W5, Mattock Lane, Pitzhanger Manor

Unusually neither of the memorials is visible in our photo of the location, but we hope you agree that the house is worthy of a picture f...

1 subject commemorated
Bust in Stratford - Beethoven

Bust in Stratford - Beethoven

E15, Stratford High Street, 361, Borough Theatre

Researching this bust we failed to ID the man, and worse, we discovered that there was another bust on the building, obliterated by the 1...

1 subject commemorated