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The Victoria Embankment Gardens are a series of gardens on the north side of the River Thames between Blackfriars Bridge and Westminster Bridge in London.
Between 1865 and 1870 the northern embankment and sewer was built by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. In 1874 gardens were created on the reclaimed land on the inward side of the roadway named Victoria Embankment . There were four sections created, the Temple Garden to the east, the Main Gardens to the west (originally known as the Adelphi Gardens), and two other sections to the south following the bend of the Thames. The gardens are now under the control of the City of Westminster.
The gardens are fully fenced and are open during designated hours. They open at 07:30 throughout the year, but close at varying times between 16:30 during the coldest months and 21:30 at the height of summer. All gardens have gravel paths that are well lined with seats mainly given as memorials. The river side of the gardens is lined with mature trees. Grass and flower beds are spread throughout the gardens, and on warm days workers from near-by establishments can be seen having picnic lunches both on the seats and the grass.
In the Temple section there are statues to Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Stuart Mill. The main section has memorials Sir Arthur Sullivan, Robert Burns, Sir Wilfred Lawson, Robert Raikes and the Imperial Camel Corps. The southern section has memorials to General Sir James Outram, General Gordon, Air Marshal Lord Trenchard, and the Chindit Memorial which also commemorates Orde Wingate.
A memorial to the British soldiers in the Korean War was unveiled in Victoria Embankment Gardens, between the River Thames and the Ministry of Defence headquarters in London, England, in December 2014. [1]
Although not strictly a statue, there is an equatorial sundial made from stainless steel in the main garden under the Savoy, dedicated to Richard D'Oyly Carte.
In the main garden there is a café, open in the warmer periods, and a band shell where concerts are held daily in June and July. A charge is made for seats in the enclosure, but the concerts can easily be heard outside on the paths' seats. The York Water Gate can be seen adjacent to the Villier Street entrance. This marks the original bank of the Thames, which is now 135 metres away. Public toilets are outside the gardens' Embankment gate next to the underground station.
Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London.
The Thames Embankment is a work of 19th-century civil engineering that reclaimed marshy land next to the River Thames in central London. It consists of the Victoria Embankment and Chelsea Embankment.
Albert Embankment is part of the river bank on the south side of the River Thames in Central London. It stretches approximately one mile (1.6 km) northward from Vauxhall Bridge to Westminster Bridge, and is located in the London Borough of Lambeth.
Victoria Tower Gardens is a public park along the north bank of the River Thames in London. As its name suggests, is adjacent to the Victoria Tower, the south-western corner of the Palace of Westminster. The park, which extends southwards from the Palace to Lambeth Bridge, sandwiched between Millbank and the river, also forms part of the Thames Embankment.
The Battle of Britain Monument in London is a sculpture on the Victoria Embankment, overlooking the River Thames, which commemorates the individuals who took part in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War.
Villiers Street is a street in London connecting the Strand with the Embankment. It is partly pedestrianised; traffic runs northbound only up to John Adam Street, where vehicles must turn right. It was built by Nicholas Barbon in the 1670s on the site of York House, the property of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whom the street commemorates. A watergate in nearby Embankment Gardens is the only remnant of the mansion and shows the original position of the north bank of the River Thames.
The Royal Air Force Memorial is a military memorial on the Victoria Embankment in central London, dedicated to the memory of the casualties of the Royal Air Force in World War I. Unveiled in 1923, it became a Grade II listed structure in 1958, and was upgraded to Grade II* in 2018. It is considered to be the official memorial of the RAF and related services.
The Fleet Air Arm Memorial, sometimes known as Daedalus, is a war memorial in London, commemorating the service of the Royal Naval Air Service and the Fleet Air Arm from their establishments in 1914 and 1924 respectively, in the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Falklands War and the Gulf War, including over 6,000 killed in all conflicts. The service of the Fleet Air Arm is also commemorated at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, at the former base of the Fleet Air Arm at HMS Daedalus in Lee-on-the-Solent, and at the Church of St Bartholomew, Yeovilton.
Old Palace Yard is a paved open space in the City of Westminster in Central London, England. It lies between the Palace of Westminster to its north and east and Westminster Abbey to its west. It is known as the site of executions, including those of Sir Walter Raleigh, Guy Fawkes and other conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, and James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, following the Battle of Preston.
The Imperial Camel Corps Memorial is an outdoor sculpture commemorating the Imperial Camel Corps, located in Victoria Embankment Gardens, on the Thames Embankment to the east of Charing Cross station, in London, England. The unit of mounted infantry was created in December 1916 from troops that had served in the Gallipoli campaign in the Dardanelles.
A memorial to the British soldiers in the Korean War was unveiled in Victoria Embankment Gardens, between the River Thames and the Ministry of Defence headquarters in London, England, in December 2014. The memorial, a bronze statue of a British soldier by the sculptor Philip Jackson, with a Portland stone obelisk on a Welsh slate base, was a gift from the Government of South Korea and was unveiled in a ceremony led by Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
The Privy Garden of the Palace of Whitehall was a large enclosed space in Westminster, London, that was originally a pleasure garden used by the late Tudor and Stuart monarchs of England. It was created under Henry VIII and was expanded and improved under his successors, but lost its royal patronage after the Palace of Whitehall was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1698.
The Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial is a memorial in London to Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel, two of the foremost British suffragettes. It stands at the entrance to Victoria Tower Gardens, south of Victoria Tower at the southwest corner of the Palace of Westminster. Its main feature is a bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst by Arthur George Walker, unveiled in 1930. In 1958 the statue was relocated to its current site and the bronze reliefs commemorating Christabel Pankhurst were added.
The statue of James Outram, a work by Matthew Noble, stands in Whitehall Gardens in London, south of Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade II listed structure.
The Chindit Memorial is a war memorial in London, England, that commemorates the Chindit special forces, which served in Burma under Major General Orde Wingate in the Second World War. The memorial was erected in Victoria Embankment Gardens in 1990, near the Ministry of Defence headquarters, and also commemorates Wingate, who died on active service in Burma in 1944. It became a Grade II listed building in August 2020.
The Sir Joseph Bazalgette Memorial is a memorial to the Victorian engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, by George Blackall Simonds. It is located on the Victoria Embankment.
A bronze statue of General Charles George Gordon by Hamo Thornycroft stands on a stone plinth in the Victoria Embankment Gardens in London. It has been Grade II listed since 1970. A similar statue stands at Gordon Reserve, near Parliament House in Melbourne, Australia, on its original tall plinth.
The Memorial to Arthur Sullivan by William Goscombe John stands in Victoria Embankment Gardens in the centre of London. It was designated a Grade II listed structure in 1958.
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