Victoria Memorial’s ‘first’ blueprint found in vault

  • | Thursday | 19th July, 2018

One of the many things that we are doing as a run-up to this is a book on Victoria Memorial rarities. KOLKATA: The Victoria Memorial authorities have come across a plan/drawing of the monument in one of its vaults. The jail was shifted to Alipore in 1906 to make a clearing so that Victoria Memorial could be built. We are trying to find out more details about the number of drafts that might have been done before the final one was prepared,” said Victoria Memorial curator Jayanta Sengupta. Sketched in 1905, before the construction started, this drawing looks quite different from the imposing structure we have today.

KOLKATA: The Victoria Memorial authorities have come across a plan/drawing of the monument in one of its vaults. Sketched in 1905, before the construction started, this drawing looks quite different from the imposing structure we have today. Though they are yet to arrive at a conclusion, the authorities believe this was the first plan that was drawn up after Lord Curzon decided to build a fitting memorial to Queen Victoria , who died in 1901.The drawing is a far slimmer version of the present monument. While the mammoth dome on top, complete with the wind vane fairy can be clearly seen in the sketch, the length on either side is curtailed and the four columns, complete with smaller domes on top, are absent. The sketch also contains scope of a series of fountains thta were finally not built. The architect of this grand structure is William Emerson and it is believed that this first drawing was done under his supervision.“It is obvious that this drawing must have been revised later to include the more ornate and heavier structure that we have today. We have seen the final drawing. But we were surprised to find this “first” drawing. We are trying to find out more details about the number of drafts that might have been done before the final one was prepared,” said Victoria Memorial curator Jayanta Sengupta. The sketch bears the date ‘2.11.05’, which is a year before the construction started.Along with this drawing, the authorities have also come across another sketch bearing details about the garden layout and the symmetry in which it was to be developed around the monument. Signed by superintending architects for the garden Vincent J Esch and Edward White, who jointly developed the garden, the plan even contains details about which point would have which kind of tree. Such points are marked off in the plan.Before the monument was built, the Presidency Jail stood there since 1778. The jail was shifted to Alipore in 1906 to make a clearing so that Victoria Memorial could be built. The heavy foliage that exists inside VM today started as saplings following the plan, because after the shifting of the jail, only a big denuded clearing remained. The construction started in 1906 and was thrown open in 1921.“We will celebrate the century year in style. One of the many things that we are doing as a run-up to this is a book on Victoria Memorial rarities. We will start off with these two sketches because we now know that they are amongst our rarest archival material and we need to publicize them,” Sengupta added.

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