The Queen Elizabeth Way Monument, also known as the Lion Monument and as the Loring Lion, is an Art Deco memorial originally located at the Toronto end of the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW). The monument was designed by architect W.I. Sommerville, sculptors Frances Loring, and Florence Wyle helped model the royal profiles and crown.
It was dedicated June 7, 1939 during the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the namesake of the highway, in what was the first visit to a British dominion by the reigning sovereign. It consists of a column with a crown at the top and a lion at the base. The monument was moved in August 1975 in order to accommodate widening of the original QEW, and is now located in the nearby Sir Casimir Gzowski Park along Lake Ontario, on the east side of the Humber River. It was re-dedicated in 1989 by Queen Elizabeth, by then known as the Queen Mother.
Also along the QEW is the decorative stone pillar on the eastern approach to the Henley Bridge in St. Catharines, Ontario. It was also dedicated by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. There are two monuments of the bridge (east and west approach) consisting of four regal lions and each bearing a unique shield. A pillar is located on the opposite side of each monument with a sailboat motif on the west pillar.
Famous quotes containing the words queen elizabeth, queen, elizabeth and/or monument:
“Richard. Harp not on that string, madam, that is past.
Queen Elizabeth. Harp on it still shall I till heart-strings break.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“...he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, declaring that every man should be master in his own house.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Esther 1:22.
King Ahasuerus, after his Queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s command.
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.””
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 1:41,42.
“Their monument sticks like a fishbone
in the city’s throat.
Its Colonel is as lean
as a compass-needle.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)