View of the south side Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking from the 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. On the corner of the Strand and Northumberland Avenue is The Grand Hotel, 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 a traffic island is an equestrian statue of Charles I in half armour. Commissioned in 1630 by Charles I's Lord Treasurer Sir Richard Weston for his house at Mortlake Park, Roehampton. Cast in 1633 by Hubert Le Sueur, the Portland Stone pedestal is by Joshua Marshall carved in 1674-5 when the statue was moved to this position. It is Grade I listed, number 1357291. 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. A large sign around the attics advertises 'Bovril'. Adjacent, at 3 Whitehall, is a two-storey building with a dormered pavilion roof with a balustrade, and shop named 'Sinclair'. Built in the late-nineteenth century of Portland Stone and polished granite. It is Grade II* listed, number 1225731. There are numerous vehicles in view, including Black cabs, buses and coaches.