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Ultrasauros (sculpture)

2010 sculpturesBurned buildings and structures in the United KingdomDinosaur sculpturesSculptures in England
Ultrasauros sculpture and Portsmouth Naval Memorial (geograph 2085814)
Ultrasauros sculpture and Portsmouth Naval Memorial (geograph 2085814)

Ultrasauros (or The Southsea Dinosaur) was a 53 feet (16 m) sculpture of an Ultrasauros by Welsh artists Heather and Ivan Morison. The work was installed on Southsea Common in Portsmouth, England in 2010.The sculpture was inspired by the work of palaeontologist James A. Jensen, who in the 1970s believed that a discovered set of giant bones belonged to the largest dinosaur that ever lived, which he dubbed "Ultrasauros". More than a decade later, however, it was revealed that his discovery was in fact a chimera, composed of bones from two different brachiosaur-type species. The Ultrasauros sculpture took three years to plan and build. The sculpture was constructed by thirty factory workers in Serbia in a small village outside the city of Kragujevac. The construction team was composed of engineers, welders, assemblers and model makers were all ex-employees of the Zastava car factory (where Yugo cars were manufactured) that was Kragujevac's main employer, and Luna Park was made from the same materials used to model Yugos.The sculpture was brought to the UK in August 2010 with the support of Portsmouth's Aspex Gallery. It attracted over 100,000 people during the exhibition, and the people of Portsmouth were so taken with the dinosaur that the leader of the local council, Gerald Vernon-Jackson hoped to make it a permanent fixture following a tour to firstsite in Colchester and Chapter in Cardiff However, at the end of September 2010, in the week before it was due to be moved, Ultrasauros caught alight and burned down overnight. Initial suspicions were that the fire was arson, but it was later determined to be due to an electrical fault.In 2021 a miniature version of the original sculpture was installed on the seafront to serve as a permanent tribute to the original.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Ultrasauros (sculpture) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Ultrasauros (sculpture)
Clarence Esplanade, Portsmouth Old Portsmouth

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N 50.784 ° E -1.096 °
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Royal Naval War Memorial

Clarence Esplanade
PO5 3AE Portsmouth, Old Portsmouth
England, United Kingdom
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Ultrasauros sculpture and Portsmouth Naval Memorial (geograph 2085814)
Ultrasauros sculpture and Portsmouth Naval Memorial (geograph 2085814)
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Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Portsmouth Naval Memorial

The Portsmouth Naval Memorial, sometimes known as Southsea Naval Memorial, is a war memorial in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, on Southsea Common beside Clarence Esplanade, between Clarence Pier and Southsea Castle. The memorial commemorates approximately 25,000 British and Commonwealth sailors who were lost in the World Wars, around 10,000 sailors in the First World War, and 15,000 in the Second World War. The memorial features a central obelisk, with names of the dead on bronze plaques arranged around the memorial according to the year of death. To commemorate sailors who had died at sea in the First World War and had no known grave, an Admiralty committee recommended building memorials at the three main naval ports in Great Britain: Chatham, Plymouth, and Portsmouth. Identical memorials at all three sites were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, with sculpture by Henry Poole. A separate memorial in Lowestoft commemorates the lost from the Royal Naval Patrol Service; the Fleet Air Arm is commemorated in Lee-on-the-Solent; and merchant seamen are commemorated at the Liverpool Naval Memorial and the Tower Hill Memorial in London. The Royal Naval Division War Memorial is on Horseguards Parade in London. The memorial is made of Portland stone, with a prominent central obelisk topped by a metal finial. Steps lead up to a plinth bearing bronze inscription plaques fixed to the obelisk's base bearing the names of the lost. Each corner projects as a buttress, surmounted by a statue of a reclining lion, beneath a stepped base to the obelisk. The four-sided obelisk tapers slightly to a stepped top with an elaborate finial with corner ships prows and bronze supports to a verdigris copper ball. The memorial was unveiled on 15 October 1924 by Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI). The memorial was extended after the Second World War, to a design by Sir Edward Maufe. Names of those lost in the Second World War are recorded on panels set into the low walls of an enclosure added to the north, leading to a barrel-vaulted pavilion on each side. The additional sculpture was created by Charles Wheeler, William McMillan, and Esmond Burton. The additions were unveiled by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on 29 April 1953. The memorial is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It became a listed building in 1972 and was upgraded to Grade I in May 2016 for the centenary of the Battle of Jutland.

Queens Hotel, Southsea
Queens Hotel, Southsea

Queens Hotel is a luxury hotel in Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire. The current Queens Hotel is placed on the site of Southsea House, built in 1861 by architect Augustus Livesay, which was built for Sir John and Lady Morris. In 1865, due to boom in construction and tourism, Southsea house was converted into the Queen's Hotel by William Kemp Junior. It was one of Portmouth's first hotels, and it focused on the leisure and relaxation for the upper class. At 4:20pm on 8 December 1901, a fire gutted the entire hotel, leaving only the two outer walls that face Osborne Road and Clarence Parade. On 11 December 1901, it was deemed safe to enter the site and two missing chambermaids were discovered, dead, due to being trapped by falling rubble in the basement. In early 1902, plans were submit by the hotel owner at the time, G. H. King, to rebuild the hotel to cover the original footprint. The new hotel was to be much grander and more purpose-built, to include 63 rooms for visitors, and 33 for staff. The architect of the rebuild was London based T.W. Cutler. He was to design the hotel in the Edwardian baroque style in brown terracotta. This was a rising popular style across the British Empire in 1901. Designs were grand and lavish and no expense was spared. The hotel had to be designed to make a statement. The book England describes the hotel as a "Magnificent Edwardian hotel overlooking the Common, with ornate stone-carved balconies and countless neoclassical decorative flourishes". The hotel contains 74 rooms and has two bars and a restaurant. An episode of Mr. Bean starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean in Room 426) was filmed at this hotel in 1992, first aired in February 1993. The hotel was listed at Grade II by Historic England on 20 October 2020.