Victoria Art Gallery - Bath, Somerset - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Victoria Art Gallery was built in 1897-1900 to the design of John McKean Brydon. It was opened in 1900 to commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. It is a Grade II* listed building and houses over 1500 objects of art including a collection of oil paintings from British artists dating from 1700 onwards. The ground floor was at one time a public library.

The text reads

Victoria Art Gallery
Erected to commemorate the sixtieth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria
This memorial stone was laid by H.R.H the Duke of Cambridge
on the XVIII of Oct MDCCCXCVII [18 October 1897]
George Woodiwiss Mayor
John Stone Town Clerk
J M Brydon FRIBA Architect
Jacob Long & Sons Contractors

"The building is constructed of limestone ashlar rendered in its upper half and occupies a corner site. It is a two storey building with an attic tower with a lead-covered dome. There are nine bays on Bridge Street and one on Grand Parade and each floor consists mainly of one large rectangular room. A flight of stone steps rises to the circular entrance hall which leads to the former library. The main stair is approached through an arch and is a seventeenth century revival stair made of mahogany with bulbous balusters. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted. The upper landing has Ionic marble columns and a coffered dome, embossed with signs of the Zodiac in relief. The Upper Gallery is lit by a range of skylights and has a coved ceiling, a copy in plaster of the Parthenon frieze, and a panelled dado with triglyphs.

The exterior of the building includes niches, the central niche being larger and flanked with Ionic columns and pilasters, holding a statue of Queen Victoria, by Andrea Carlo Lucchesi, and friezes of classical figures by George Anderson Lawson on either side. The council offices, the Guildhall, continue the building to the south-west.

The Gallery was named to celebrate Queen Victoria's sixty years on the throne. It is run by Bath and North East Somerset council and houses their collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. There are two main galleries, the Upper Gallery and the Lower Gallery, linked by an imposing marble hallway and grand staircase."

SOURCE - (visit link)

Type of Historic Marker: Plaque Age/Event Date: 10/18/1897 Related Website: [Web Link] Give your Rating: Historical Marker Issuing Authority: Not listed

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