Albert Memorial

Lonely Planet review

This memorial is as over-the-top as the subject, Queen Victoria's German husband Albert (1819-61), was purportedly humble. Albert explicitly said he did not want a monument and 'if (as is very likely) it became an artistic monstrosity like most of our monuments, it would upset my equanimity to be permanently ridiculed and laughed at in effigy'.

Ah, he didn't really mean it, they reckoned, and got George Gilbert Scott to build the 52.5m-high, gaudy Gothic monument in 1872, featuring the prince thumbing through a catalogue for his Great Exhibition, and surrounded by 178 figures representing the continents (Asia, Europe, Africa and America), as well as the arts, industry and science. The monument was unveiled again in 1998 after being renovated at huge expense. It's certainly eye-catching when it's lit up at night.