The Albert Memorial was opened in 1872. The memorial cost £120,000 and was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, on the model of an Eleanor cross.
It is one of Britain’s most prolific architects, took more than ten years to complete. The project was carried out entirely through public subscription. More than £1200 was raised in a single day by contributions from peers, notables of the City and town-hall authorities across the country.
At the four corners of the Albert Memorial in London’s Kensington Gardens are four large sculptures whose stylized groupings of animals and people categorically represent Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas – and imperial version of the biblical four corners of the earth.
The bronze statue at the center of the memorial represents Albert himself seated, wearing the dress of a Knight of the Garter, staring resolutely southeast, and holding in his right had a catalogue of the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations.
Prince Albert (1819-1861), husband of British Queen Victoria from 1840: a patron of the arts, science and industry. He was the second son of Ernst I, the Duke of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, and first cousin to Queen Victoria. She married Queen Victoria in 1840 and became in effect her chief adviser.
Albert Memorial in Kensington
