Photograph of Queen Victoria monument

Queen Victoria at St.Nicholas Square, Newcastle.
One of the the things I miss about England is the architecture, the monuments, the history. This statue was one of my favourites in Newcastle (near the Vampire Rabbit at the Cathedral Buildings). Here is a link to a fabulous photo, but what most of the links don't tell you is that the monument sits atop a Plague pit in "which over three hundred bodies lie". Why the historical aspect was not taken into consideration when they decided to plonk this monument over it is a mystery, but oh well! There is a strange dichotomy of feelings when looking at this Victorian monument and all the historic meanings behind it, yet knowing that there lies beneath hundreds of bodies from the 1665 plague. It sort of dulls the grandiosity of the this major piece of sculpture knowing the ugliness that is below it. However maybe it's not such a dichotomy for those who have studied the realities of the Victorian era.

Comments

Cynthia said…
Interesting...It reminds me a bit of the catacombs under Paris and all the death that lies beneath the Marrais.
Anonymous said…
Monuments like that one seem to make me feel very curious about it's background, meaning etc. WONDERFUL WORK!
Anonymous said…
Interesting post! I'm halfway through an anthology of writing about New York City and it's pretty amazing what some of the grand hotels are built upon there. The vampire rabbit cracks me up! And noone knows where it came from? Veeery mysterious...then again, is there a university nearby?
jafabrit said…
susanna,I bet that would be very interesting, are you going to publish it? post it on your blog?

the vampire rabbit is located at the back of the cathedral buildings(once used by the rich coal merchants as their offices and now used by solicitors), which face the back of st.nicholas cathedral. The Uni is at the other end of Newcastle.

anyway, thanks for dropping by susanna, cynthia and angela.
Dr.John said…
So the Queen stand guard over a plague pit. There must be something symbolic there somewhere.
Philip said…
If Queen Victoria had known I'm sure she would have said 'we are not amused'.
Beaman said…
Nice art work you have. The Plague pit sounds interesting, what a painting you could make out of that image!
jafabrit said…
"The Plague pit sounds interesting, what a painting you could make out of that image!"

eek, that would be something else. hey thanks for visiting beaman.
Janets Planet said…
Have they figured out the vampire rabbit yet?

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