Queen Victoria

Last weekend was Victoria Day weekend. The original holiday was to celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria on May 24th. To ensure a long weekend it is now celebrated on the last Monday before the 24th of May. I thought it might be nice to salute the holiday by posting a photo of the statue of the young queen that stands in front of the British Columbia Legislature overlooking Victoria's Inner Harbour. It's a larger than life statue and rests on a high pedestal so it is not easy to see her face. Probably most of us think of her in her widow's weeds as an elderly woman but when she came to the throne she was a beautiful young woman only 18 years old. I think this statue does her justice. The sculptor was Albert Bruce-Joy. The statue was installed at its present location in 1914. We'll have a look at Monday's Victoria Day Parade tomorrow.

Totems?

Here's another view of the Legislature with Queen Victoria's statue. This statue is on such a high plinth that you can't see it well from up close. This was shot with a telephoto lens from across the street. The statues Euro-Canadians erect are perhaps a little analogous to First Nations totem poles. In the background we have another totemic figure on top of the Legislature - Captain Vancouver.

Victoria

This is the statue of Queen Victoria as a young monarch. It is located in front of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly Buildings overlooking the Inner Harbour. The statue, somewhat more than life size, stands imposingly atop a high pedestal so that her feet are a good ten feet (about 3 meters) above the ground. I find it interesting to compare this with the modern statue of Sir John A. MacDonald, our first Prime Minister, by the entrance to the Victoria City Hall. He stands only slightly elevated above passersby.

Queen Victoria

No blog about Victoria would be complete without some reference to the Queen for whom the city was named, so here is a photo of the statue of Queen Victoria that stands in front of the Legislative Assembly Buildings. This is a young Queen Victoria, quite different from the aged queen we are more used to seeing (below), but when the city was founded in 1843, Victoria had only been 6 years on the throne and, at 24 years old, may have been very like this statue.Below is a photo of the statue overlooking the Inner Harbour with the Empress Hotel on the right. The Empress Hotel, built shortly after her death, was named after the Queen in her role as Empress of India.