the bust in memory of Queen Victoria was erected in 1910. The monument was paid for through a public subscription. It was placed in the middle of the square. Later, with the advent of the motor car, and the need to dig an ARP shelter under Governor’s Parade, it was moved to one side to its present location. Inebriated sailors on shore leave would try to climb up the monument to try and snap off the decorations on the Queen’s diadem. They sometimes succeeded. Her Majesty would not have been amused. In her new position, Queen Victoria has turned her back on where the Theatre Royal used to stand. The Theatre was built in 1847, and the opera Nabucco by Verdi was performed there on its inauguration. In its time, the theatre had major changes made to it and it was remodelled on three occasions. The works that began in 1889 took five years to complete. It was again altered in 1914, when the unsightly fire escapes of 1893 were removed. The facade of the theatre was then brought further out into the square, with the emergency exits now inside the building instead of on the outside. It was then remodelled, inside and out, in 1937-8. Prior to its demolition, the theatre had been closed for many years. Today, the theatre is just a memory. So is the City Council fountain on the square next to the London Bar. The fountain was set up by the Council’s predecessors, the Sanitary Commissioners. Water from the fountain was collected in large and small barrels, which were sold to the public. This was necessary in the case of houses that did not have a water cistern under the building to collect rainwater from the roofs during the winter months, or if the cistern ran dry. The water-kegs were laden on the back of donkeys and taken round
For nearly 100 years, before the Garrison Library was built, there continued to be a vegetable garden and orchard next to Governor’s Parade. The locals called it La Huerta de Riera to the patios. Later, they were taken on wheel-barrows, at a time when the volume of this type of water sales dropped sharply. It was the way things were done before the advent of running water in every house. The O’Callaghan Eliott Hotel stands on the site of another military building: the Command Pay Office. It is symptomatic of how things have changed. Military buildings that became surplus to defence requirements have either been converted to new uses, or demolished in order to allow better utilisation of the footprint of the building. The old picture postcards of Gibraltar serve as a reminder of what went on in Governor’s Parade over the years. They show the monu-
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2014
ment to Queen Victoria in its original location, the different faces of the Theatre Royal and the water fountain. Above all, they show what a large open space there once was on Governor’s Parade.
Progress always comes at a price. n Images of postcards have been taken from the book ‘Gibraltar through the Lens’ by Richard Garcia.
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