The Statues of London,England. October 2012
Seen here: Queen Victoria on the North side of Blackfriars Bridge. The statue was 'Presented to the citizens of London by Sir Alfred Searle Haslam in token of friendship to themselves and loyalty to Her Majesty Queen Victoria'.
Sir Alfred Seale Haslam (1844–1927), was an English engineer who was Mayor of Derby from 1890 to 1891, three times Mayor of Newcastle under Lyme, and Member of Parliament for Newcastle under Lyme from 1900 to 1906. He had made his money from devising a refrigeration plant that could be used to transport food in ships worldwide. At one time he owned and lived at Breadsall Priory in Derbyshire.
In 1896 Haslam funded a statue of Queen Victoria by Charles Bell Birch at the north end of Blackfriars Bridge in London. Haslam made a similar donation to create a statue in his constituency of Newcastle under Lyme in 1903. Haslam had a third erected in Derby. There were seven other casts, all of which were based on a marble original which was erected in India.
We pass them without so much of a glance but I decided to walk the embankment and Westminster area of London and take a good long look at the Statues of London. Most of the works are of Victorians many we have never heard of such as those who reformed the British educations system or built our drains or who gave us clean drinking water. Others are those who helped to defend this country from the Victorian era to the present day.