The Albert Memorial rising at 176 feet (54 meters) in Kensington Gardens, London, is a Gothic Revival ciborium designed and dedicated to the memory of Prince Albert of Great Britain, who died in 1861. A committee of architects, led by Sir George Gilbert Scott, was appointed to fashion the memorial, with Scott's design formally approved in April 1863. The initial statue of Prince Albert, sculpted by Baron Carlo Marochetti, was rejected by Scott, and the commission was later given to John Henry Foley after Marochetti's death.
The monument gained its Grade I listing in 1970. The elaborate sculptural Frieze of Parnassus showcases the work of Henry Hugh Armstead and John Birnie Philip, depicting 169 individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors. To construct the monument, £120,000 was spent, a sum that, when adjusted for inflation in 2025, equates to about £15,000,000.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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