Victoria Memorial

The 'H' shaped memorial  consists of numerous hybrid features; it has Italian-style statues over its entrances, Mughal domes in its corners and tall elegant open curved colonnades along its sides. There are 3000 exhibits in 25 galleries in a chamber beneath the dome. Main entrance is from the north. A bronze statue of Queen Victoria sits enthroned in bronze at the entrance marble staircase wearing the regal Order of the Star of India. Above her, a black bronze angel known as Victory, holding a bugle in her hand was placed at the apex of the dome above the Memorial and has always been regarded as a curious addition to the monument. It is fixed to its pedestal with ball bearings and rotates when the wind is strong enough.

The entrance dome is deeply graven with the text of Queen Victoria's imperial proclamation speech. Inside the memorial there is a remarkable collection of artifacts depicting British Imperialism - statues of famous British figures including Robert Clive, General Stringer Lawrence, Lord Bentick, William Makepeace Thackeray, who was born here, Florence Nightingale, Queen Mary, George V and Queen Victoria etc. Many of British India's Governors and Governor Generals are represented here in stone, dressed in Roman togas, like Clive, Warren Hastings, Cornwallis, Wellesley, Dalhousie etc. Excellent paintings such as, Burne-Jones's portrait of Rudyard Kipling, Johann  Zoffany's portrait of William Hastings and his family, Macaulay, Bishop Heber and William Hickey, Verestchagin's monumental depiction of the Prince of Wales making his grand tour of Jaipur in 1876, the works of the Victorian artists Thomas and William Daniells, paintings of  Robert Clive, marriage of the Prince of Wales with Princess Alexandra are exhibited and a huge painting depicts King Edward VII entering Jaipur in a regal procession in 1876. French guns captured at the Battle of Plassey are on exhibit along with the black stone throne of the Nawab whom Clive defeated. Also on display are some Indians without discrimination. Among these are - Keshab Chandra sen,  Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath tagore and his grandfather Dwarkanath Tagore.

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