The statue of Queen Victoria
The statue is made of bronze, painted black and mounted on a Portland stone base.
She is depicted as she was in her las years of life and is in a seated position wearing large robes.
When the statue was cast there were two small statues standing on each side of her seat and she was holding a sceptre. All three of these items are now no longer present.
The statue is at the entrance to a small park, and Victoria looks down Front Street towards Tynemouth Priory.
It was sculpted by Alfred Turner and cast at the Parlanti foundry.
There is an inscription on the stone plinth that is now rather faded and difficult to read.
VICTORIA DEI GRATIA
ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION TO
THE MEMORY OF OUR LATE BELOVED QUEEN
VICTORIA
BY THE INHABITANTS OF THE
BOROUGH OF TYNEMOUTH
DURING THE MAYORALITY OF
ALDERMAN DAGLISH JP
1901-02 AND UNVEILED BY
THE MAYORESS OCTOBER 21ST 1902
A BENEFICIENT WISE AND GLORIOUS REIGN
ANNO DOMINI 1837 TO 1901
The monument sits at the entrance to a small park, and Victoria looks down Front Street towards Tynemouth Priory and Castle.
Queen Victoria
"Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than any previous British monarch. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. Though a constitutional monarch, privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Their children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe" and spreading haemophilia in European royalty. After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism in the United Kingdom temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. She died on the Isle of Wight in 1901. The last British monarch of the House of Hanover, she was succeeded by her son Edward VII of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha."
Wikipedia