HL Deb 11 November 1958 vol 212 cc346-7

2.48 p.m.

LORD AMULREE

My Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the direction in which the Cross on the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens faces has been altered in the course of restoration.]

EARL ST. ALDWYN

My Lords, when the Albert Memorial was repaired and restored in 1954–55 the Cross was replaced in the position shown in the original drawings by Sir Gilbert Scott.

LORD AMULREE

My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Earl for the purely factual reply he has given. May I ask him, as a supplementary question, why the original plan was changed so that the Cross faced the way it always did; whether the fact that the Cross was changed met with the approval of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria; whether the noble Earl has seen the copy of the Illustrated London News of July 13, 1872, when her late Majesty visited the Memorial and expressed her approval of the way the Cross was placed; and, finally, whether he does not think it would be the right and proper thing to change the Cross round?

EARL ST. ALDWYN

My Lords I am afraid that there are no records as to why the Cross was placed facing North and South, rather than East and West as designed by the architect. I have not seen the copy of the Illustrated London News to which the noble Lord has referred, and, as I say, there are no records to show whether approval was given. It is presumed that when the monument was erected the Cross was put up North and South, but in fact there is no record of that. I am afraid that I cannot hold out any hope of altering it, owing to the considerable expense involved.

VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH

My Lords, has the request for making the change come from the Church authorities? Have they insisted upon the face view of the Cross facing the East?

EARL ST. ALDWYN

My Lords, to the best of my knowledge there has been no representation from the Church about this matter, and we were merely following the original design of the architect.