View of Trafalgar Square - London Picture Archive

Title

View of Trafalgar Square

Reference

SC_PHL_01_537_74_20062 (Collage 141219)

Date

Collection

The London Archives: LCC Photograph Library

Description

View of Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking southeast. 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. At 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. On the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall, 1-9 Northumberland Avenue is the ‘Second Empire’ hotel block built 1881-82 by F. and H. Francis in stone, with slate roofs. Five storeys and a dormered mansard with two Trench square dome pavilion-roofs. It is now known as Trafalgar Buildings offices with shops on the ground floor and is Grade II* listed, number 1266434. Around the attic is a large sign advertising 'Bovril'. Adjacent, 3 Whitehall is a two-storey building with a dormered pavilion roof with a balustrade, and shop on the ground floor. Built in the late-nineteenth century of Portland Stone and polished granite. It is Grade II* listed, number 1225731. On the southwest corner plinth is a statue of General Sir Charles Napier, cast in bronze in 1855 by G. G. Adams on a granite pedestal. An officer in the British Army's Peninsular and 1812 campaigns, and later a Major General of the Bombay Army, during which period he led the military conquest of Sindh, before serving as the Governor of Sindh, and Commander-in-Chief in India. The statue was raised by subscription from private soldiers who had served under Napier in India. It is Grade II* listed, number 1357304. At the southeast corner 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. In the square are several pedestrians and numerous pigeons.