What do you see when you look at this statue? Personally, I don’t see a flattering image of the queen.

Instead, I’m more inclined to agree with Mark E Smith. In The Fall song City Hobgoblins he says:

“So Queen Victoria is a large black slug in Piccadilly, Manchester.”

The statue was designed to commemorate Victoria’s 60th year on the British throne in 1897. Due to delays in the time it took to design (the artist was Edward Onslow Ford), produce and install, it wasn’t put up in 1901, by which time she was dead. Critics at the time weren’t that impressed with it and it has never really been received well.

In 2002, she had to undergo a deep clean and refurbishment, after a century of public life. She’s also accumulated a thick layer of pigeon poop.

I wonder if it will still be there in another 120 years time? Perhaps it doesn’t offend that many people, so it could well just stay there forever and rot.