Hyde Park’s Albert Memorial Now Considered “Highly Offensive”
The Royal Parks have claimed the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park is “highly offensive” because it reflects a “Victorian view of the world” in drawing on “racial stereotypes” in its depiction of people from other countries, according to the Mail. Here’s an excerpt.
Standing at 176ft, the memorial was built by Queen Victoria to honour her late husband Prince Albert in 1872 and has since become one of the most recognisable landmarks in London.
The colossal monument features a gold statue of the Prince alongside four groups of large statues representing four continents across the world. It is these statues that the Royal Park website says draws on “racial stereotypes”.
Asia is depicted as a woman on an elephant, America as a native American with a bison and Africa as a woman riding a camel. The African sculpture also includes a white European woman reading a book to a black African tribesman.
Victorian guidebooks at the time claim this detail in the African statue was intended to represent him “rising up from barbarism”.
The website said: “Though the Empire has traditionally been celebrated as a symbol of British supremacy, many today consider this view as problematic because colonialism often relied on the oppression and exploitation of people, resources and cultures.’”
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, The Royal Parks said this new information was added last year as part of an attempt to “regularly review and update information about our landscape and heritage features, across all our parks to enhance visitor experience.”
Worth reading in full.
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“regularly review and update information about our landscape and heritage features, across all our parks to enhance visitor experience.”
There is no enhancement in cultural vandalism.
Given the numbers flocking to these shores the conclusion must be that our efforts as colonisers were so successful that the previously oppressed and exploited are eager to come and sample the real British way of life.
The reality of course is that this is just another way of destroying the country via eradication of our history and it is blatant.
It is not acceptable for people alive today to think that they have the right to reinterpret history to meet the bigoted standards of 2024 and frankly those involved ought to be ashamed of their gross ignorance.
The people responsible for this wanton vandalism should be given the order of the boot. Literally.
What a load of flockers they are!
Colonialism as purported special case in human history doesn’t exist. The Victorians built a world-spanning empire like many people before them or coexisting with them or existing after them did. People tasked with managing Royal Parks who claim to be offended by this need to get different job. If they feel their vocation is really anti-English political preaching, they should perhaps try to get into politics instead of politicizing everything they got into instead. That’s offensive and entirely uncalled for.
It must be remembered that the Industrial Revolution was not a product of colonialism or slavery. The world went from using 9 elements from the Periodic Table and 140 inventions to using all 92 elements (and more) and over 10,000 inventions (still increasing) in a little over 100 years. This is something that no other empire in history achieved. The Chinese acquired 8 important inventions, but also bureaucracy and exams [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23376561]. As a consequence of their ‘successful’ bureaucracy and it’s related exam system, as well as a powerful imperial top down society, they did eff all with those key inventions for 2,000 years. The UK Industrial Revolution was bottom up and driven by freely associating individuals that were, in the main, self taught. Depressingly, the post WW2 years have seen the UK move towards a Chinese style top down exam led bureaucracy, as evidenced with how Asian Tiger Mums are held in high regard irrespective of the fact Asia did not bring about the modern world.
And also the fact that you need a ruddy degree to work in a coffee shop these days, or so it seems.
Very informative. Thanks 👍
And as this nonsense (obviously) comes from the USA: The moment an Usan manages to get to colon when trying to say colonialism, he should immdiately be required to pack his things and relatives and move to some continent that’s willing to take him. Living in and benefitting from a colonial empire while lecturing the others on the evils of this is not acceptable.
I personally find the denigration of my proud heritage offensive. Put that in you DEI pipe and vape it.
They should really be combatting global slavery which they can do something about. From the Global Slavery Index
It was the 19th century colonialism that ended black African slavery and Islamic North African slavery.
The Pyramids, Rome’s Coliseum, Athen’s Parthenon, Mayan temples and in fact all historic structures must go because many are hugely ‘problematic’ and do not align with the Left’s chore values.
Not Mayan temples. They come from the kind of exotic stone-age culture self-appointed good people are madly in love with. Aztecs flaying their prisoner alive to keep the sun going, marvellous people, weren’t they? Englishmen dying in see engagments during the battles to abolish slavery worldwide, the scum of the earth, obviously. The mental state of these people is already obvious in the fact that they believe to be right because they believe to be left.
I have a beautifully published ‘coffee table’ book ‘Human Planet’ by the BBC that ‘Accompanies the landmark BBC series’. Can you guess which humans are entirely absent from this 288 page large glossy book?
Actually, no. Which?
There are no Europeans. There is a photo of a falconer David Stead in Dubai and a slightly out of focus photo of a pedestrian crossing in Barcelona.
The success of the Great Exhibition led to the building of the Albert Hall, and all the inspirational building in that South Kensington block. The centre line runs from the centre of the Albert Memorial and through the centre of the Albert Hall, the centre of the front doors of the Royal College of Music and finishes at the centre of the front doors of the Natural History Museum.
Empire building was generally an advanced civilization taking leadership over a less advanced civilization.
In the case of the British Empire, it always resulted in the less advanced civilization being uplifted into the modern world, being eventually provided with what we today regard as basic infrastructure (in those days, novel infrastructure) for transport, drinking water supply, sewage treatment and a system of justice.
It is interesting to travel to previous British colonies and experience the availability of clean drinking water in household taps, whereby modern governments have sadly not always been able to uphold the necessary standards.
Were there down sides, were there wars, was there individual suffering? Of course, there were, but those were the days of exploration and domination by one powerful nation or another. At least the British tried to improve the quality of life in their dominions.
The film ‘North West Frontier’. which I have just bought, has a great line. A man of a certain religion, mocks the British Empire. A British lady responds “Half the world mocks us and half the world is only civilised because we have made it so”. Yes I know it is only a film but I happen to agree with her comment.
This is my first comment. So I have never received a down tick. So far.