Victoria Grand Display To Isolation Bombay-Old Photo
This is an old 1966 news photo of Queen Victoria’s statue once in grand display now consigned to isolation in Bombay, now Mumbai. Both the statue of Queen Victoria and the marble canopy were made out of the finest Italian marble. And was considered to be one of the finest under the British Empire at one time. Gifted by the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda it held pride of place at Bombay’s or Mumbai’s Esplanade from 1872 until 1966.
See my previous post- Queen Victoria Statue Under Canopy Bombay-Old Photograph 1890.
By 1966 it lay confined in a secluded spot in the British built Victoria Park ironically named after her. The park is now known as the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum. Her nose smashed by nationalists, her husband King Albert is also shown with his head decapitated. The standing figure of Lord Sandhurst is also visible. The Sandhurst Road Station was named after Lord Sandhurst the governor of Bombay from 1895 to 1900. It was not only in Bombay but the whole of India that sculpted figures of the British Raj rulers were removed or damaged. Click on the photo for better view.
Read more- The rise and fall of statues in Madras.
Did you know- the queen’s sculpted figure is now sitting at a private clothes store in Breach Candy in Mumbai.
From the collection- 1964 M. Suriyamoorthy Charcoal Art Abstract (#17)., Cooum River In Chennai – Old Photograph 1880., Vintage Cars Mumbai Mahabaleshwar Car Rally – Old Print 1906., Madras Mowbray’s Road – Old Photograph 1902
