Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Queen Anne Cities and Landmarks

Aside from furniture, there are places named for Queen Anne. Here is information from Wikipedia.

Cities
- Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada - originally Port-Royal, it became Annapolis Royal when the British took sovereignty of Nova Scotia from the French in 1710. Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Annapolis River, Nova Scotia and the Annapolis Valley take their names from the town of Annapolis Royal.
- Fort Anne, Nova Scotia - fortification in Annapolis Royal.
- Annapolis, Maryland, United States; the town of Princess Anne, Maryland, however, is named for Princess Anne of Great Britain, daughter of King George II.
- Fort Ann, New York - Both the town and its accompanying village are indirectly named after Anne.
- Queen Anne Town - Colonial port town established in 1706 near the tidal limit of the Patuxent River in Maryland, the town was later named Hardesty and never grew beyond the initial few houses and taverns.

City landmarks
- Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London - There is a statue in the square of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, but the square itself was built in 1708 and named for Anne.
- Queen Square, Bristol, UK - This was the first residential square built outside London, in 1702. Anne paid a visit to the site during construction.
- Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster, London, UK - a short street created by merging a square with an inn-yard. A bust of the Queen stands half way along.
- Queen Anne's Corner, Norwell, Massachusetts - a crossroads in the Accord section of the town.
- Queen Anne Square, a park in downtown Newport, Rhode Island.

The Arts Flourished

Here is another interesting excerpt from Edward Gregg’s book Queen Anne –

“Queen Anne’s England enjoyed a growing sense of wealth and power; its colonial system was flourishing and expanding, and the nation was on the verge of becoming one of the great powers of Europe. This sense of wealth and power was accompanied by growing literary and artistic freedom. The lapsing of the Licensing Act in 1695 brought an end to censorship of the press. Grub Street flourished, and in the ensuing years Swift, Defoe, Pope, Addison and Steele were to be the greatest of the notable authors of Queen Anne’s reign. In the arts, Sir Christopher Wren, Grinling Gibbons, Sir John Vanbrugh, and Sir Godfrey Kneller were to make their distinctive contributions to a recognizably English style, while George Frideric Handel was to precede the queen’s Hanoverian heirs into the kingdom. In the sciences, Isaac Newton was the father of modern physics, and was knighted by the queen. The vast palaces of Blenheim, Castle Howard, Chatsworth, and Petworth were being created. A whole style in decorative arts, including furniture and silver, which combined beauty, comfort, and practicality, was to be named after Queen Anne.”