View of Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking northeast. 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 in 1867. The monument is Grade I listed, number 1276052. Around the base of the monument is a recruitment poster at the outbreak of World War II which reads 'National Service. It's up to you' and 'National Service. Offer yours today. Call at the Recruiting Service'. Most of the square is surrounded by hoarding, and scaffolding is within. Between the fountains is a bronze statue of General Charles George Gordon by Hamo Thornycroft. Gordon was lauded as a British war hero after his death at the end of the Siege of Khartoum in January 1885. Unveiled in Trafalgar Square on 16 October 1888 it was moved from Trafalgar Square in 1943 to the grounds of Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire. In a speech in the House of Commons on 5 May 1948, Winston Churchill (then Leader of the Opposition) advocated a return of the statue to its original location. It was restored in 1953 on the Victoria Embankment. At the northeast corner of the square 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 north-eastern 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 eastern side of the square is South Africa House, constructed on the site of Morley's Hotel, after South Africa became fully sovereign from the United Kingdom in 1931. Built 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.
