Porta Victoriana

Published in Windlesora 19 (2002)

© WLHG

The remarkable ‘Porta Victoriana’, created by Alfred Young Nutt, architect to Queen Victoria for her Diamond Jubilee, looked like solid brick and stone but was actually made entirely from painted wood, canvas and plaster. Over the main arch a ‘statue’ of the Queen when young was flanked by the lion and the unicorn. The structure was decorated with coats of arms; the royal standard and the borough flags flew from its turrets, and at night it was illuminated by gas lamps held in wrought iron brackets. It was the most ambitious Jubilee decoration anywhere in the country and Windsor was extremely proud of it.