Botany: Under construction 1912-1914

Botany: Under construction 1912-1914

This photograph hangs on the left wall of the alcove and shows the nearly completed Botany Building with views of the Memorial to the Great Exhibition and views of the Royal College of Music. This part of the Quadrangle was also designed by Sir Aston Webb (as indeed were all four sides) and Webb adopted a similar style to the Union Building except that, in order to be hospitable to plants, 'the maximum of glass has been given to all rooms'. It was built between 1912 and 1914 by Dove Brothers.

The clear view of the Royal College of Music is only available because the South side of the quadrangle has yet to be built. This South side, the Beit Building, was the last side of the Quad to be built and wasn’t constructed until 1930–1931.

The clearing to the north of the Botany building affords a view through to the Memorial to the Great Exhibition of 1851. This view lasted until 1957 when the Union Building was extended upwards by two storeys and extended outwards by the addition of the link to the Botany Building.
The memorial holds a special place in the hearts of many IC alumni being the location of choice for group photographs - particularly for groups gathering before formal dinners and for groups celebrating their degree ceremonies on Commemoration Day.

As fondly as we regard this monument, we do take it rather for granted. And most of the world dismiss it as the insignificant echo of the much larger and grander Albert Memorial on the opposite side of the Albert Hall. But it really is rather fine. It was designed by Joseph Durham, and is made of red Aberdeen and grey Cornish granite with electrotyped bronze female figures representing Europe, America, Asia and Africa, one on each corner. As was typical allegorical representation for the time, Europe is prim and proper and wears diaphanous clothing revealing pert nipples , America wields an axe for the settlers and a bow for the natives, Asia wears an exotic headdress and holds a banana leaf, and Africa is largely naked with dreadlocks and muscles that our rugby 1st XV would be proud of.

The monument had a very difficult birth. The original concept was to have a statue of Albert, but he was a humble man and dragged his feet. Eventually the idea of Britannia Presiding Over the Four Quarters of the Globe was proposed and immediately the whole monument made sense. But it continued plodding slowly forward, tortuously designed by committee. Ten years after the exhibition the foundations began to be dug and the decision was made for the statue of Britannia to be switched for one of Queen Victoria. But then Albert died in December and things really got motoring. Queen Victoria decided to revert to a statue of Albert, his boy (who was to become Edward VII) paid for the statue, modern, trendy and less expensive electrotyped bronze was used. Eventually the monument was finished and unveiled in June 1863 when it was in the midst of the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society. It would have been located South of its current location, smack bang where the Prince Consort Road now runs. It was moved in about 1891 when Prince Consort Road was built, would you believe it, from wood! The surface would have rather resembled granite cobblestones, where the ‘stones’ were blocks of wood, held together with pitch. (In this period, indoor parquet floors would also have been held together with hot bitumen).

Let's move round the alcove and view the next framed photograph......