Statue of Queen Victoria, Bengaluru

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The Statue of Queen Victoria in Bengaluru stands at Queen’s Park, Bangalore Cantonment, near Cubbon Park, at the junction of three roads on the border between the Cantonment and the Bangalore Pete. It faces the Statue of King Edward VII on the other end of Queen’s Park. The statue was unveiled on 5 February 1906 by the then Prince of Wales, who would become King George V.

Funding came from the local residents of the Bangalore Civil and Military Station, with additional support from Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. A fund collected about ₹10,000 in six months, and Mysore contributed the rest, bringing the total cost to ₹25,500.

The statue was made by Sir Thomas Brock, a renowned sculptor who also created the Victoria Memorial in London. The Bangalore statue is 11 feet tall, carved from marble and set on a 13-foot granite pedestal. It arrived from England in July 1905. This work is a copy of Brock’s 1890 statue for Worcester and is similar to other Victoria statues in cities like London, Hove, Carlisle, Belfast, Brisbane and Cape Town. Brock also sculpted Victoria statues in Agra, Cawnpore and Lucknow.

Queen Victoria is shown wearing the Order of the Garter robes with tassels and roses, holding a scepter and an orb with a cross. Inscriptions on the pedestal include English, Kannada on the left, Tamil on the right and Urdu on the back, giving translations of the main text.

Over the years, the statue’s regalia has suffered wear: the cross of the orb is missing, the scepter is broken, and one finger on the queen’s hand is damaged. The statue is now partly hidden by surrounding trees. The Horticulture Department of Karnataka has asked for expert restoration reports and suggested polishing the statue and pruning nearby trees to improve visibility.

Since the 1960s, some political activists have demanded the removal of this statue, along with others from the colonial era. The government considered removing it in 1977 but did not act. Heritage lovers and historians oppose removal, arguing it is part of Bengaluru’s history. In 2013, supporters of the statue’s protection garlanded the statue of Mark Cubbon in protest.

Nearby landmarks tied to Queen Victoria include the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru Pete, named after her. St. Andrew’s Church houses a large stained-glass window created to commemorate Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897. The history surrounding the statue reflects the period when India came under British rule after 1858, and Victoria was declared Empress of India in 1877.