A memorial fit for a queen

Stephen Bayley wonders if we will ever have …

WHEN FIELD MARSHALL HIS ROYAL Highness the Prince Consort, Duke of Saxony, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter died on 14 December, 1861, England was surprised into a great affection, warm feelings only partially realised when he was alive. This affection was eventually expressed as the Albert Memorial. Now one of London’s favourite landmarks, its early history was uneasy. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the French rationalist architect, deplored the structural sham (fussy gingerbread over hidden and rapidly rusting box girders). The philosopher R.G. Collingwood on his morning walks through Kensington Gardens came to the settled opinion that it was “visibly misshapen, corrupt, crawling, verminous”. To Charles Handley-Read, pioneer scholar of Victorian architecture, it was a “test for taste”. Only with the publication of Kenneth…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2025

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