London Memorial Essay

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The memorial has been used in several royal celebrations including the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, with the memorial being used as a platform for a fireworks display alongside the addition of added water jets (Western Mail, 2002). In 2012 the memorial was used as a centrepiece for the stage of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Concert (Doncaster Free Press, 2012) and later on in 2012 the memorial marked the end of “Our Greatest Team Parade”, a parade celebrating the sucesses of the British teams at the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The memorial was also used as a finishing point for the marathon (BBC News, 2012), aswel as being on the triatholon route (The Daily Telegraph, 2012). The main uses of the memorial can be seen to be either the celebration of monarchy or connected to public celebrations of British culture. The cultural implications for contemporary politics in London lie in what the memorial itself is actually intended to represent. The memorial consists of various parts. At the top of the central pylon is a gilded bronze winged victory- the personified Roman goddess of Victory, (talesbeyondbelief.com, …show more content…

At the four corners of the monument are bronze figures, with lions representing “Peace” – a female figure holding an olive branch, “Progress”- a nude youth holding a flaming torch, “Agriculture” – a woman in peasant dress with a sickle and a sheaf of corn and “Manufacture” – a blacksmith in modern costume with a hammer and

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