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Albert Memorial
The Albert Memorial is situated in Kensington Gardens, directly to the north of the Royal Albert Hall.
It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who died of typhoid in 1861, and designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic revival style.
Opened in 1872, with the statue of Albert ceremonially "seated" in 1875, the memorial consists of a statue of Prince Albert facing south. This is surrounded by the elaborate sculptural Frieze of Parnassus, which depicts 169 individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors. There are two allegorical sculpture programs: four groups depicting Victorian industrial arts and sciences (agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacturing), and four more groups representing Europe, Asia, Africa and The Americas at the four corners, each continent-group including several ethnographic figures and a large animal. The sculptor Henry Hugh Armstead coordinated this massive effort among several arists of the Royal Academy, including Hamo Thornycroft.
By the late 1990s the Memorial had fallen into a state of some decay. A thorough restoration was carried out which included the cross on top of the monument, which had been put on sideways during an earlier restoration attempt, was returned to its correct position.
The centrepiece of the Memorial is a seated figure of Prince Albert. Following restoration, this is now covered in gold leaf. For eighty years the statue had been covered in black paint. Various theories sujest that it was deliberately blackened during World War I to prevent it becoming a target for Zeppelin bombing raids. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Memorial)
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