View of Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking north from the southwest corner. 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. 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 northern 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. The central Corinthian portico is raised on a podium wall with flanking steps and set back behind the portico pediment is a stone cupola dome. The secondary Corinthian porticoes have parapets raised over a central bay. The terminal pavilions have pairs of giant pilasters surmounted by small octagonal stone cupolas with pierced work openings. It is Grade I listed, number 1066236. In the foreground is a statue of 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. On the left is the end of the western parapet wall with a lamp standard. On 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.
