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Diane's avatar

In my local park, Friary Park in North Finchley we have the statue of Queen Victoria which was intended for the top of the memorial to the Great Exhibition which stands at the back of the Royal Albert Hall (not to be confused with the Albert Memorial). After the death of Albert Queen Victoria insisted that a statue of Albert should stand on top of the memorial so her own statue was consigned to the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden nearby. When the gardens closed Victoria 's statue went into storage but was later donated to our local park which opened in 1910. However, at the time nobody knew it was Queen Victoria and the statue was named Peace. A few years ago a local Historian did some research and discovered the statue's true identity.

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David Styles's avatar

The Russell Square cabman's shelter was originally outside the Haymarket Theatre, the theatre that the shelter’s donor, Sir Squire Bancroft was then managing. It was later moved to Leicester Square where it spent some considerable time. During this time, when the green hut was located in Leicester Square during the war, the siren was sounded and the diners made their way down to the underground air raid shelter. After the all clear, the cabbies made their way back to the shelter to finish what was left of their dinner. To their surprise, all their cabs had been destroyed by a German bomb. Amazingly, the shelter survived with just some superficial damage. The shelter vanished in the late 1980s when pedestrianisation arrived and the shelter became obsolete. The decision was then taken to move the shelter to Russell Square. The shelter was restored in 1987 and again prior to the London 2012 Olympics when it was re-sited yet again in the north-west corner of Russell Square. A plaque outside attests that this shelter was presented by Sir Squire Bancroft a famous actor/manager in 1901.

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