Canada Memorial

Canada Gate forms part of the Queen Victoria Memorial scheme in London. An entrance to the Green Park, one of the eight Royal Parks in central London, the gate was presented to London by Canada (then the senior Dominion of the British Empire) as part of a vast memorial scheme dedicated to Queen Victoria, who died in 1901. The entire memorial, more an act of town planning than funerary monument, was designed by Sir Aston Webb. It takes the form of a processional route from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. Beginning at Admiralty Arch, the project takes in The Mall and culminates in a "rond point" before the palace, with Sir Thomas Brock's Victoria Memorial at its centre. The Canada Gate was commissioned, in 1905, along with the gates for Buckingham Palace and two other similar, but smaller gates presented by Australia and South Africa. The commission was won by the Bromsgrove Guild (a company of modern artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement) who completed the work and had the gate in situ by 1911. The gate stands to the north side of the "rond point" at the junction with Constitution Hill; today, a congested roundabout, but occasionally closed to traffic when the Mall is required for state processions from the palace. From the gate, a long double avenue stretches the width of the park through to Piccadilly. The gate is in the same style as those of Buckingham Palace and bears the coats of arms of six of the seven Canadian provinces of the time (left to right: Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), while in the centre of the gate is the original coat of arms of Canada of 1868. In design, Canada Gate takes the form of a screen consisting of 5 portals of gilded wrought iron, the central section being the principal and largest gate; the double gates are supported on columns of iron. The two wrought iron bays flanking the central gate contain smaller gates, while the two terminating bays contain smaller pedestrian gates. The screen is terminated by two massive pillars of Portland stone surmounted by patriotic statuary. On the pillars are reliefs of the shields of three other Canadian provinces, British Columbia (left) and Alberta and Saskatchewan (both right). The flanking inner columns are smaller and, like the iron posts, are crowned by gas lanterns of similar design to those on the pillars of the palace railings.

Green Park, officially The Green Park, is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the southern part – the core part – of the City of Westminster, Central London, but before that zone was extended to the north, to take in Marylebone and Paddington it lay in its north-centre. It is north of the gardens and the semi-circular forecourt of Buckingham Palace. First enclosed in the 16th century, it was landscaped in 1820 and is notable among central London parks for having no lakes or buildings, and only minimal flower planting in the form of naturalised narcissus.

The Royal Archives, also known as the King's Archives, is a division of The Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It is operationally under the control of the Keeper of the Royal Archives, who is customarily the Private Secretary to the Sovereign. Although Sovereigns have kept records for centuries, the Royal Archives was formally established as recently as 1912 and occupies part of the Round Tower of Windsor Castle. Since the Royal Archives are privately owned, requests for public access must be approved based on the needs and qualifications of the researcher.

Buckingham Palace (UK: ) is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning. Originally known as Buckingham House, the building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. During the 19th century it was enlarged by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, who constructed three wings around a central courtyard. Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The last major structural additions were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the East Front, which contains the well-known balcony on which the royal family traditionally appears to greet crowds. A German bomb destroyed the palace chapel during the Second World War; the Queen's Gallery was built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection. The original early-19th-century interior designs, many of which survive, include widespread use of brightly coloured scagliola and blue and pink lapis, on the advice of Sir Charles Long. King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle Époque cream and gold colour scheme. Many smaller reception rooms are furnished in the Chinese regency style with furniture and fittings brought from the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and from Carlton House. The palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring.

The Victoria Memorial is a monument to Queen Victoria, located at the end of The Mall in London, and designed and executed by the sculptor (Sir) Thomas Brock. Designed in 1901, it was unveiled on 16 May 1911, though it was not completed until 1924. It was the centrepiece of an ambitious urban planning scheme, which included the creation of the Queen’s Gardens to a design by Sir Aston Webb, and the refacing of Buckingham Palace (which stands behind the memorial) by the same architect. Like the earlier Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, commemorating Victoria's consort, the Victoria Memorial has an elaborate scheme of iconographic sculpture. The central pylon of the memorial is of Pentelic marble, and individual statues are in Lasa marble and gilt bronze. The memorial weighs 2,300 tonnes (about 2535 short tons) and is 104 ft wide. In 1970 it was listed at Grade I.

The Queen's Gallery is the main public art gallery of Buckingham Palace, home of the British monarch, in London. It exhibits works of art from the Royal Collection (the bulk of which works have since its opening been regularly displayed, so held in trust for the nation, rather than kept privately) on a rotating basis. It has its own access façade and typically displays about 450 works, always including mainly paintings and drawings.

Bridgewater House is a townhouse located at 14 Cleveland Row in the St James's area of London, England. It is a Grade I listed building.

26 St James's Place is a grade II* listed block of flats in St James's Place, St James's, London W1. The block of eight flats was built in 1959–60, and designed by Denys Lasdun and Partners, with Alexander Redhouse as the partner in charge, and Graham Lane, Lyall Anderson and Maya Hambly as assistant architects, and Ove Arup and Partners as the engineers. It is built with reinforced concrete clad with Baveno grey granite and white vitreous mosaic on the soffits.In 1960, it was awarded the RIBA London Architecture Bronze Medal.It replaced a house built in about 1692, and destroyed by German bombing in World War II. Notable residents included Sir John Harpur, and Lieutenant-General Sir John Cope, who demolished it in 1745 and built a larger house, where he lived until his death in 1760. Later occupants included Richard Rigby, Richard Vernon, Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington, who extended the house, and the Dowager Lady Arden.

The Diana Fountain, also known as Diana of the Treetops, is a fountain and statue of Diana by Estcourt J Clack that stands in Green Park. The park and statue are in the City of Westminster in central London.The statue was a gift of the Constance Fund, which had been established by artist Sigismund Goetze to gift sculptures to London parks in memory of his wife. Sigismund pre-deceased his wife in 1939 and she administered the Constance Fund until her death in 1951, commissioning a number of sculptures in his memory. Constance Goetze was approached by the Ministry of Works in April 1950 with a view to securing financial support from the Fund to replace a fountain in Green Park by Sydney Smirke that was deemed beyond repair. Following an exchange of letters the Fund in June 1950 the fund agreed their support and a competition was organised with Sir William Reed Dick assisting the Fund in selecting a successful winner.Six sculptors took part in the competition: Maurice Lambert, Harold Dow, Siegfried Charoux, Geoffrey Hampton Deeley, Escourt J.Clack and Hamish Macpherson. In October 1951 it was announced that Clack, a teacher at Blundell's School in Devon, had won. The statue was presented to Sir David Eccles, the Minister of Works, by Constance's niece, Countess May Cippico, on behalf of the Fund on 30 June 1952.From 1952 until 2011, the statue stood in the centre of the park, on the site of the earlier fountain it had replaced. In 2011, Clack's statue was removed from that site, restored with the addition of some gilding and was then placed to form the centrepiece of a new entrance that gives direct access to the park from Green Park Underground station.

Spencer House is a historic mansion located at 27 St James's Place in the St James's area of London, England. The house is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England.

The Stafford is a five star hotel in St James's Place in London, England. Built in the 17th century CE, its wine cellars may be the oldest in London. Previously used as private residences, the buildings were opened as a hotel in 1912. Allied soldiers used them as air raid shelters during the Second World War.Numbers 16-18 St James's Place were built as private residences in the 17th Century. With the addition of number 18 in 1912, the block of houses was converted into the Stafford Hotel. Since its founding, the hotel has passed through several ownership groups and undergone a major renovation.

Lancaster House (originally known as York House and then Stafford House) is a mansion in the St James's district in the West End of London. It is close to St James's Palace, and much of the site was once part of the palace complex. This Grade I listed building is now managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.