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Bust

Sanctuary - head on right - Albert

Erection date: 1854

Site: Westminster Sanctuary (4 memorials)

SW1, Broad Sanctuary, The Sanctuary, 1-8 Broad Sanctuary

The building is Grade II listed, a terrace of Bath stone buildings incorporating gateway to Dean's Yard. 1853-54 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Some sources say these were built as houses which seems unlikely but they are certainly now used as offices.

Niches in the turrets, at first floor, house two very similar statues. The spandrels of the gateway are decorated with two roundels with portrait heads, one of which is crowned. These all seem to represent particular individuals but we can find no information, so we have to guess.

The statues are crowned and each clutches a model building, with slightly different fenestration. So we think they are the two kings central to the creation of Westminster Abbey: Edward the Confessor who, in 1042-52, (re)built St Peter's Abbey here, and Henry III who, in 1245, began the building of the current Abbey. Comparative beard lengths seem to corroborate our theory.

And the two heads must represent Victoria and Albert: the female wears a crown and the male doesn't, the date of the building, they even look like some of their portraits.

The memorial column in our photo is covered on its own page: Westminster School - old boys.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Sanctuary - head on right - Albert

Subjects commemorated i

Prince Albert

Born Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, Germany, as Albert Francis Augustus Charles Ema...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Sanctuary - head on right - Albert

Also at this site i

Nearby Memorials

Hotel Russell - Disraeli

Hotel Russell - Disraeli

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This ornate extravaganza, designed by the splendidly named Fitzroy Doll, was built in 1898. Ornamental Passions has a good post about the...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
03 Croydon - John Napier

03 Croydon - John Napier

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Royal Observatory Greenwich comments on a photo of this portrait and its 2 neighbours: "Halley, Newton and Napier as they appear on the o...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Charles Lamb - Giltspur Street

Charles Lamb - Giltspur Street

EC1, Giltspur Street, 10

Ornamental Passions have a good post on this memorial, saying that Lamb is shown in his school uniform and that Reynolds-Stephens designe...

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Morley mosaics - WBR - Emma Cons

Morley mosaics - WBR - Emma Cons

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Left to right: Cons, Martineau, Hubback, Baylis. In our photo the pedestrian has just walked past Baylis. These mosaics are on the Maufe...

3 subjects commemorated, 3 creators
Unidentified head - gentleman

Unidentified head - gentleman

SW1, Cockspur Street, 25 (about)

This gentleman and his lady friend may just be anonymous, off-the-shelf heads but they look like portraits to us.

2 subjects commemorated