Queen Victoria Memorial, in front of Buckingham Pa

Caught this on one of those marvellously sunny days in January, that sometimes just appear.

Victoria died in 1901 after 63 years on the Throne. The Victoria Memorial itself was not completed until 1911, the sculptor was SIr Thomas Brock. There is a large statue of the Queen Empress herself in the centre, with on the pinnacle above her a winged victory.

Around the central plinth are figures with imperial British lions like the one shown here.

Nowadays, traffic flows around the Memorial, between it and pillars representing the Dominions and Colonies of the then British Empire on which "the sun never set".

It was I believe widely derided at the time by fashionable artistic opinion who in 1911, thought it very old fashioned and "last century". However maybe that was exactly what was required for Victoria's Memorial.

When the Royal Family appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for national occasions like VE day or the Jubilee, it provides a great vantage point for the more adventurous.