Sculpture background

Alfred Drury's Queen Victoria (1902-05) was Wellington's first significant sculpture.

The bronze statue, a replica of Drury's commission for Portsmouth, was originally located in Post Office Square (where SkyBlues is now located).

It was commissioned after the Queen's death in 1901. On Drury's advice, the statue was set on a high pedestal, giving it an imposing effect.

The work was unveiled in 1905 in front of a crowd of 3,000 while the Wellington Garrison Band played "God Save the King".

In Governor Lord Plunket's speech, he likened the work to the Statue of Liberty.

"I personally think it is a very happy circumstance that this statue should stand where it does, for it proclaims to the anxious, weary immigrant as he arrives upon your shores, that besides the better material prosperity he has been led to expect, he has come among a loyal people, and is under the British Constitution, with the freedon which every British subject enjoys, and which is the envy of every foreign nation"

The statue was moved to its current location six years after it was unveiled as it had become a traffic hazard.

In her hand, Queen Victoria holds a statuette of Victory.

The bas-relief panel on the back side of pedestal depicts the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, with a Maori chief on the left, and William Hobson on the right. Until 1967, this image was on the back on New Zealand's ten-shilling note.