page_title: Albert Park, Auckland
section_title: Features
hierarchical_section_title: Albert Park, Auckland / Features
caption_attribution_description: English: The Victoria Statue in Albert Park, Auckland, New Zealand
context_page_description: Albert Park is a public park in central Auckland, bounded by Wellesley Street East, Princes Street, Bowen Avenue and Kitchener Street. From the entrance at the corner of Bowen Ave and Kitchener St, sealed footpaths climb steeply through native trees to the large flat area at the summit, where a formal layout of paths and flower gardens encircle a fountain.
context_section_description: The design of the park was the result of a public competition and follows a formal layout with a main north-south axis. To the north of the axis is a bronze statue by Francis J Williamson of Queen Victoria (1897); to the south is a bandstand (James Slator 1901). Between them is a large cast iron fountain imported from Great Britain in 1881 which forms the centrepiece of the park. The fountain is distinguished by statues of dolphins ridden by cherubs blowing horns that spout water. The fountain is surmounted by a generic female figure that also has a horn spouting water.
  The statue of Queen Victoria was one of several similar sculptures installed by municipal authorities throughout the British Empire following the monarch's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. This sculpture was cast in London and unveiled with considerable ceremony here as part of the Jubilee celebrations. The red granite pedestal is intact but the ensemble originally included a massive cast iron ornamental fence that has been removed.
  There are several other artworks and memorials in the park, including a marble Boer War memorial, and an over life-size marble statue also by F J Williamson of Sir George Grey (1904) that was relocated here from its original site outside the Auckland Town Hall. There are two Edwardian marble edifices near the band rotunda, one being Andrea Carlo Lucchesi's Love breaking the sword of hate (1900) and the other a memorial drinking fountain. Many of these memorials and artworks can be seen in the numerous images of Albert Park printed as postcards since the early 20th century.
  Near the flagpole and Boer War Memorial on the north side of the park are two large field guns that were once part of the defense system set up during the Russian Invasion Scare of the 1880s. Near the Princes Street exit in front of the University of Auckland clock tower is a large floral clock that was constructed in 1953 with funds donated by Robert Laidlaw, founder of the Farmers department store chain, (this was intended to commemorate the 1953 visit of Queen Elizabeth the Second). Near the Art Gallery is a large modern sculpture from the 1990s called 'Tilt'. Surprisingly an operating Victorian Gas Lamp survives in the Park, on the stairs leading from Kitchener Street.
  Beneath the park are the extensive Albert Park tunnels. They were built in 1941 to be used as air raid shelters, but were decommissioned and sealed up before World War II ended. The tunnels were largely forgotten for many years and, although periodically over the last decades there are calls for them to be opened up, nothing has happened (probably purely for logistical reasons). There were large tunnel entrances at the top of Victoria street, adjacent to the Art Gallery on Wellesley Street and from Constitution Hill. One can still be seen on Kitchener Street between Courthouse and Bacons Lane.
caption: The statue of Queen Victoria
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