Victoria Embankment

This is a Magic Lantern slide showing the statue of General Sir. James Outram in Victoria Embankment Gardens looking west. The Statue is by Matthew Noble. Outram was a career soldier with the East India Company and fought in many of the campaigns to establish the Company in India culminating in the Indian Mutiny in 1857. He famously led a force to relieve Lucknow and was voted by his men to receive the Victoria Cross which was not granted as he was commanding officer. The statue was unveiled by Lord Halifax on 17th August 1871. The statue was due to stand on Trafalgar Square near the statue of Sir. Henry Havelock, another soldier who fought in the Indian Mutiny, but this was refused by the first Commissioner of works and the location on Victoria Embankment was offered and accepted. Unlike many other London statues which have been moved and relocated over the years, this one remains in its original spot whilst all around it changed. I think that the photograph was taken shortly after the unveiling, in the background Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square can be seen as well as the end of Northumberland Street with a Huggins and Company Public House on the corner. In 1874 Northumberland House was demolished together with part of Northumberland Street including the pub to make way for the building of Northumberland Avenue. The bulk of Northumberland House is obscured by the statue but its gardens to the left, which were described as a wild area in central London can be seen. There were suggestions that young trees from the gardens could be transplanted to Victoria Embankment Gardens. Any photograph from the same vantage point taken today would show the Liberal Club and Whitehall Court, which were built in the mid 1880s, in the background and the statue surrounded by trees and small shrubs and beds in Victoria Embankment Gardens.

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