Industry

In the three years that I’ve got to know the Queen Victoria memorial in the park at Woodhouse Moor, the side plinth labelled Industry had been empty. I’d been curious about it, but all I’d been able to establish was that it has been toppled at some point during the 1980s and put into storage. I don’t think I’d even been able to find an image of it online.

So I was surprised to see the statue sitting there (closer image in extras) when I walked past last week. Apparently it was re-erected in mid-December. 

Given the overall memorial is also a monument to empire, with the four sides labelled: India, Africa, Canada & Australia, it is unsurprising that the site drew attention and activism during Black Lives Matter protests. The juxtaposition of this very aryan figure on the Africa side of the monument seems likely to stir some further comment.