Albert Memorial

In between Kensington Gardens and the Royal Albert Hall is a very non-British looking memorial, this one in honour of Prince Albert, Queen Victroria’s husband who died aged 42 in 1861.

The memorial took 15 years to build and is 175ft high with a black and gilded spire, a multi coloured marble canopy and almost 200 sculptured figures around the base.

About thirty yards from the base of the main memorial are four sets of sculptures one in each corner depicting people from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

With this memorial and the close by Royal Albert Hall Queen Victoria no doubt hoped to preserve her husband’s memory, but I doubt if she would have suspected that almost 150 years later the name Prince Albert is most associated in Britain with a piece of ‘body art’, namely piercing the end of your penis and putting a ring through it similar to what cows have put through their nose.

What possesses people to do this I have no idea, but legend has it that Albert wore one to secure himself to his thigh and keep a tight line in the trousers of the day. There’s a hell of a lot to be said for baggy pants. Map