Not far from the Hooghly Bridge is the Victoria Memorial Hall - dedicated to Victoria (Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India). Its a fantastic building set in lovely gardens.
The building is constructed from white marble which is quarried in Makrana, Rajasthan. The same marble was used for the Taj Mahal.
The Prince of Wales, later King George V laid the foundation stone in January 1906. However before it was finished in 1921, King George visited India. He was the first British Monarch to do so and to mark the occasion he decided to switch the capital of India from Calcutta to New Delhi. So the Memorial which was built to stand in the capital city now stands in what has become a provincial city. It doesn't detract from the grandness of the place or its popularity though.
Parts of the building were under scaffolding today with renovations being carried out and a couple of the exhibition rooms were closed to the public ....
Queen Victoria on her throne .... we were facing into the sun so most of our pictures are horribly backlit
Better light from the 'back' of the memorial
Sir Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser. Lt Governor of Bengal 1903-1908
There are a lot of similarities to the Taj Mahal, with the monument being built in the same marble and with 4 symmetrical towers and lots of water surrounding it
Edward V (1841-1910) eldest son of Queen Victoria was King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India from 1902 till his death in 1910.
In October 1875 Edward (as Prince of Wales) set off for India on an extensive eight-month tour of the sub-continent. At the end of the tour, Queen Victoria was given the title Empress of India by Parliament, in part as a result of the tour's success.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India, proposed a grand monument should be built. His statue now stands in a prominent position here
Inside the main entrance hall looking up at the domed roof
and a bit more detail from the arched sections around the inner dome - I only photographed a couple but they were all beautiful
The original piano on which Victoria had lessons as a child
Liked and hated in equal measures it seems, Major-General Robert Clive helped build the Indian empire for Britain but he was also accused of being a corrupt and greedy statesmen who speculated and used his influence to amass a fortune (nothing new there then)!
There were masses of dark brown butterflies flitting around the gardens but unlike 'normal' ones which seek out flowers these kept dropping to the ground under shrubs and near tree roots where they just 'disappeared'.
I eventually tracked a couple down. They are superbly camouflaged and when they open their wings they look much darker. They're known as dead leaf butterflies - with good reason.
Whilst waiting for our Uber taxi to arrive I photographed these horse 'carriages' ... they're billed as a major attraction around Victoria Memorial Park but the horses looked underweight and tired. Apparently the owners struggle to make ends meet through the Summer months and rely on Winter trade to earn more money and improve the horses' health in the cooler conditions.
The building is constructed from white marble which is quarried in Makrana, Rajasthan. The same marble was used for the Taj Mahal.
The Prince of Wales, later King George V laid the foundation stone in January 1906. However before it was finished in 1921, King George visited India. He was the first British Monarch to do so and to mark the occasion he decided to switch the capital of India from Calcutta to New Delhi. So the Memorial which was built to stand in the capital city now stands in what has become a provincial city. It doesn't detract from the grandness of the place or its popularity though.
Parts of the building were under scaffolding today with renovations being carried out and a couple of the exhibition rooms were closed to the public ....
Queen Victoria on her throne .... we were facing into the sun so most of our pictures are horribly backlit
Better light from the 'back' of the memorial
Sir Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser. Lt Governor of Bengal 1903-1908
There are a lot of similarities to the Taj Mahal, with the monument being built in the same marble and with 4 symmetrical towers and lots of water surrounding it
Edward V (1841-1910) eldest son of Queen Victoria was King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India from 1902 till his death in 1910.
In October 1875 Edward (as Prince of Wales) set off for India on an extensive eight-month tour of the sub-continent. At the end of the tour, Queen Victoria was given the title Empress of India by Parliament, in part as a result of the tour's success.
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India, proposed a grand monument should be built. His statue now stands in a prominent position here
Inside the main entrance hall looking up at the domed roof
and a bit more detail from the arched sections around the inner dome - I only photographed a couple but they were all beautiful
The original piano on which Victoria had lessons as a child
Liked and hated in equal measures it seems, Major-General Robert Clive helped build the Indian empire for Britain but he was also accused of being a corrupt and greedy statesmen who speculated and used his influence to amass a fortune (nothing new there then)!
There were masses of dark brown butterflies flitting around the gardens but unlike 'normal' ones which seek out flowers these kept dropping to the ground under shrubs and near tree roots where they just 'disappeared'.
I eventually tracked a couple down. They are superbly camouflaged and when they open their wings they look much darker. They're known as dead leaf butterflies - with good reason.
Whilst waiting for our Uber taxi to arrive I photographed these horse 'carriages' ... they're billed as a major attraction around Victoria Memorial Park but the horses looked underweight and tired. Apparently the owners struggle to make ends meet through the Summer months and rely on Winter trade to earn more money and improve the horses' health in the cooler conditions.
What a building! I find it interesting that despite independence they keep so many monuments which in many ways must be an unpleasant reminder to the past. The butterflies are amazing. However the poor horses look so sad and not in keeping with the very ornate carriages they are pulling.
ReplyDeleteIndia is full of buildings planned and built by British architects - or based on British buildings. Most of the visitors to the Victoria Museum were Indians .... but that could be that Indians get into all these sites for a pittance but the Brits pay through the nose. Victoria Museum entrance for Indians 30 rupees. For Foreigners 500 rupees (32 pence =v= £5.41)
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