View of Trafalgar Square - London Picture Archive

Title

View of Trafalgar Square

Reference

SC_PHL_01_537_74_20057 (Collage 141215)

Date

Collection

The London Archives: LCC Photograph Library

Description

Rooftop view of Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking east. Trafalgar Square was planned as part of the redevelopment of the West Strand Improvements by John Nash following the passing of the Charing Cross Act of 1826. Although it was to be another 30 years before the square was completed, it occupies the area of the former Great Mews of the Crown Stables. Charles Barry was the architect, although he opposed the decision to erect Nelson's Column on the site - he was overruled. The whole square is Grade I listed, number 1001362. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's memorial column and sculpture was built 1839-1842, to the design of William Railton with a fluted granite column and Corinthian capital. The statue was by E. H. Baily and the bas-relief panels around the base depicting Nelson's famous naval battles by J. E. Carew, J. Ternouth, M. L. Watson and W. F. Woodington. The four lions by Sir Edwin Landseer were cast by Baron Marochetti and added 1867. The monument is Grade I listed, number 1276052. The fountains were remodelled in 1939 to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens with sculpture by Sir Charles Wheeler and W. McMillan. The north terrace is balustraded and stone bollards enclose the open space of the square. These features are Grade II* listed, number 1066235. On the north side of the square is The National Gallery built 1832-38 by William Wilkins, to house The Angerstein Collection of paintings purchased by the government for The Royal Academy. It is Grade I listed, number 1066236. At the northeast corner of the square is the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The earliest reference to the church is from 1222, and Henry VIII rebuilt the church in 1542 to keep plague victims in the area from having to pass through his Palace of Whitehall. By 1710 the walls and roof were in a state of decay, and in 1720, Parliament passed an act for the rebuilding of the church allowing for a sum of up to £22,000, to be raised by a rate on the parishioners. The current church was built 1722-26 to a neoclassical design by James Gibbs in Portland Stone with a staged tower and steeple rising above a Classical Corinthian portico. It is Grade I listed, number 1217661. On the east side of the square is South Africa House. Built on the site of Morley’s Hotel between 1931-1933 by Sir Herbert Baker and Alexander Thomson Scott. It has a steel frame, infilled with reinforced concrete panels and faced with Portland Stone, set on a granite base. In Classical style, with arts and crafts-inspired carved details of indigenous beasts and symbols of South Africa by Joseph Armitage to the designs of Sir Charles Wheeler. It has seven storeys, two attic storeys, cornice and balustrade, and the main elevation facing Trafalgar Square is thirteen windows wide. It is Grade II* listed, number 1066238. At the southeast corner of the square, on the corner of the Strand and Northumberland Avenue, is The Grand Hotel building, built on the site of Northumberland House. Designed by F. & H. Francis and James Ebenezer Saunders and built between 1882 and 1887, the hotel had seven floors, 500 rooms, a large ballroom and was decorated with Antonio Salviati mosaics. The building was taken over by the British government in World War I to house military officers, and in the 1930s it became a retail headquarters. By 1972, not only had the stone facade weathered, but the whole building was damaged by the new Jubilee Underground line. It was demolished in 1986 and replaced with the similarly styled Grand Buildings designed by the Sidell Gibson Partnership. Originally built on the site of Northampton House which had been built in 1605 by Henry Howard 1st Earl of Northampton on the site of a former nunnery. It was sold to the Earl of Northumberland in the 1640s when it became Northumberland House. Although no longer a fashionable address in the nineteenth century, the Duke of Northumberland of the day was reluctant to leave his ancestral home, despite pressure from the Metropolitan Board of Works, which wished to build a road through the site to connect to the new roads along the Embankment, now Northumberland Avenue. After a fire, which caused substantial damage, the Duke accepted an offer of £500 000 and the building was demolished in 1874. The building was demolished in 1986 and replaced with the similarly styled Grand Buildings designed by Sidell Gibson Partnership. On the northeast corner plinth is a statue of George IV on horseback by Sir Francis Chantrey and T. Earle. A bronze statue cast in 1829 for the Marble Arch in its original setting as the entrance to Buckingham Palace and moved to this site in 1843. It is Grade II* listed, number 1275350. On the southeast corner plinth is a statue of General Sir Henry Havelock, cast in bronze in 1861 by W. Behnes. Havelock was a British general who is associated with India and his recapture of Cawnpore during the 1857 First Indian War of Independence (Sepoy Mutiny). It is Grade II* listed, number 1217599. On the north side of the square are many vehicles although this area is now pedestrianised. In the square are numerous pedestrians and pigeons.