Statue of Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace

Photo credit - WWP team

In front of Kensington Palace stands a marble statue of Queen Victoria, portraying her at 18 when she became the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, sitting in her coronation robes, her crown on her head, and a scepter in her hand.

The Kensington Golden Jubilee Memorial Executive Committee commissioned it as part of the celebrations of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Her daughter, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, a sculptress and feminist, anonymously and without her mother’s knowledge, submitted her proposal for the statue and won. At the time, the Princess lived in Kensington Palace and sculpted it at her studio on the palace’s grounds. On 28 June 1893, the Queen unveiled it.

During WW2, the statue got damaged by shrapnel that removed its nose. It was first replaced in 1952 and again in 2012 for the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II. In 1969, the statue received a Grade II listing.

A bronze casting of the statue stands outside the Strathcona Music Building of McGill University (former Royal Victoria College), Montreal, Canada.

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was born Alexandrina Victoria at Kensington Palace, where she lived until she ascended to the throne in 1837 and moved to Buckingham Palace. In 1840 she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple had nine children and 42 grandchildren, most of them married into royal families across Europe, gaining her the title of “The Grandmother of Europe.” During her 63 years reign, known as the Victorian Era, she oversaw and supported the kingdom’s industrial, political, and scientific changes that are still apparent today.

In 1899, the Queen opened parts of her childhood home to the public, while other parts have remained the private residence of the Royal family, including The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children.

Other sites worth visiting in Kensington Palace are the Queen’s and King’s state apartments, the jewel room, and the Sunken Garden, where the statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, is located.

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