Statue of Queen Anne, Kingston upon Thames

There are not many statues of Queen Anne in England - there is one at St Paul's, one at Winchester and predictably one at Blenheim Palace.

This is a pity given that she presided over one of the most successful foreign wars fought by the Duke of Marlborough on the Continent, in the War of the Spanish Succession. Arguably this was the period when the British Empire really got underway. It was the British Empire because the Act of Union between England and Scotland was passed by both Parliaments in 1707.

This statue to Queen Anne was erected during her reign in 1706 and is by the sculptor Francis Bird.

It was originally on an earlier Town Hall on this site. The current fine building is early Victorian, dating from 1840. It was the Town Hall before the Guildhall was constructed in 1935.