Statue of Queen Victoria

Defaced colonial-era statue outside the Public Buildings

A weathered marble statue of Queen Victoria stands outside the Public Buildings on Brickdam, plinth scarred and one hand still missing — damage inflicted by an explosive blast in 1954. The statue was originally erected in 1894 to mark the Queen's Jubilee, dismantled after the attack, and eventually returned to its plinth in 1990.

It is the rare colonial monument that has been allowed to remain visibly damaged. Walk past on your way to St. George's Cathedral and the cast-iron Public Buildings.

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The statue was dynamited and partly destroyed in 1954 by Guyanese nationalists. It was repaired, removed, then quietly reinstated outside the Law Courts in 1990 — losses, gashes and all — as a deliberate reminder of the colonial past rather than a celebration of it.

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