Victoria Clock Tower

The Victoria Clock Tower is one of the main attraction in Victoria. It is an elegant replica of the clock that was first erected in London in 1897 at the junction of Victoria Street and Vauxhall Bridge Road, near Victoria Station. Seychelles' governor Sir Ernest Sweet-Escott, who had admired it during a visit to London, ordered a similar clock for Seychelles as a memorial to Queen Victoria, who died in 1901 after a reign stretching over 63 years. Made by Messrs Gillet and Johnson of Croydon, and paid for partly by public subscription, the clock was eventually erected in Victoria in 1903, the same year that Seychelles celebrated its new status as a Crown colony, administered directly by a governor appointed by London instead of from Mauritius.

The clock had its mechanism completely replaced in 1999 by a modern, quartz master clock. The work was carried out by the original manufacturer, Gillett and Johnson, with the cost again being met in Seychelles partly by public donation. The Victoria Clock Tower is one of Seychelles' national monuments.