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James White "Queen Victoria Memorial"

Location

Linlithgow Avenue,, MELBOURNE VIC 3004 - Property No B6468

File Number

B6468

Level

State

[1/1]
B6468 Queen Victoria Memorial

Statement of Significance

The Queen Victoria Memorial is significant as an excellent example of late Nineteenth Century Victorian and Edwardian taste. It was described in The Lone Hand magazine (11 August, 1907) as "by far the most ambitious work of the sort yet attempted in our Commonwealth". The writer further added "it may possibly be recognised as a great work, worthy of the epoch and the personality it celebrates, the site it occupies and the most marvellous city of the century...".
After such hyperbole it is difficult to believe that it was subjected to heavy criticism by Bernard Hall only a few years later. Since that time its acceptance or rejection by a writer has been a barometer of changing taste. In this post-modernist period the memorial is once again becoming acceptable to the younger generation who like its wedding-cake look.
Classified: 18/05/1994

Group