Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early 19th century around the area known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar.
The area around Trafalgar Square has been a significant landmark since the 1200s, as distances from London are measured from Charing Cross. The King's Mews occupied part of the site until the reign of George IV, who moved them to Buckingham Palace, allowing the area to be redeveloped by John Nash. Progress stalled after the death of Nash in 1835, and the square did not open until 1844. It is faced by buildings including the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Canada House and South Africa House. The square also contains several pieces of public sculpture, including the Nelson's Column in the centre, which commemorates Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory at Trafalgar; an equestrian statue of Charles I; and the fourth plinth, which since 1999 has hosted a variety of artworks.
The square has been used for community gatherings and political demonstrations, including Bloody Sunday in 1887, the culmination of the first Aldermaston March, anti-war protests and campaigns against climate change. A Christmas tree has been donated to the square by the government of Norway since 1947 and is erected for twelve days before and after Christmas Day. The square is a centre of annual celebrations on New Year's Eve and was known for its feral pigeons until their removal in the early 21st century.
Name
The square is named after the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar, southwest Spain, although it was not named as such until 1835.The name "Trafalgar" is a Spanish word of Arabic origin, derived from either Taraf al-Ghar or Taraf al-Gharb.
Geography
Trafalgar Square is owned by the King in Right of the Crown and managed by the Greater London Authority, while Westminster City Council owns the roads around the square, including the pedestrianised area of the North Terrace. The square contains a large central area with roadways on three sides and a terrace to the north, in front of the National Gallery. The roads around the square form part of the A4, a major road running west of the City of London. Originally, traffic travelled both directions around the square until a one-way clockwise gyratory system was introduced on 26 April 1926. In 2003, the northern side was closed and the road width reduced.Nelson's Column is in the centre of the square, flanked by fountains designed by the English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens between 1937 and 1939 and guarded by four monumental bronze lions sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer. At the top of the column is a statue of Horatio Nelson, who commanded the British Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Surrounding the square are the National Gallery on the north side and St Martin-in-the-Fields Church to the east. Also on the east is South Africa House, and facing it across the square is Canada House. To the south-west is The Mall, which leads towards Buckingham Palace via Admiralty Arch, while Whitehall is to the south and the Strand to the east. Charing Cross Road passes between the National Gallery and the church.
London Underground's Charing Cross station on the Northern and Bakerloo lines has an exit in the square. The lines had separate stations; the Bakerloo line branch was called Trafalgar Square until the two were linked in 1979 during the construction of the Jubilee line. Other nearby tube stations are Embankment connecting the District, Circle, Northern and Bakerloo lines, and Leicester Square on the Northern and Piccadilly lines.
Several bus routes run through the square, including routes 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24, 29, 53, 87, 88, 91, 139, 159, 176, 453.
A point in Trafalgar Square is regarded as the official centre of London in legislation and when measuring distances from the capital.
History
Building work on the south side of the square in the late 1950s revealed river terrace deposits containing fossils from the Last Interglacial, around 130-115,000 years ago. Among the findings were the remains of cave lions, rhinoceroses, straight-tusked elephant and hippopotamus, as well as feces of cave hyenas.The site has been significant since the 13th century. During the reign of Edward I of England it hosted the King's Mews, running north from the T-junction in the south, Charing Cross, where the Strand from the City of London meets Whitehall coming north from Westminster. From the reign of Richard II to that of Henry VII, the mews was at the western end of the Strand. The name "Royal Mews" comes from the practice of keeping hawks here for moulting; "mew" is an old word for this. After a fire in 1534, the mews were rebuilt as stables, and remained here until George IV moved them to Buckingham Palace.
Clearance and development
After 1732 the King's Mews were divided into the Great Mews and the smaller Green Mews to the north by the Crown Stables, a large block, built to the designs of William Kent. Its site is occupied by the National Gallery.In 1826 the Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues instructed John Nash to draw up plans for clearing a large area south of Kent's stable block, and as far east as St Martin's Lane. His plans left open the whole area of what became Trafalgar Square, except for a block in the centre, which he reserved for a new building for the Royal Academy of Arts. The plans included the demolition and redevelopment of buildings between St Martin's Lane and the Strand and the construction of a road across the churchyard of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The Charing Cross Act was passed in 1826 and clearance started soon after. Nash died soon after construction started, impeding its progress. The square was to be named after William IV commemorating his accession to the throne in 1830. Around 1835 it was decided that the square would be named after the Battle of Trafalgar as suggested by the architect George Ledwell Taylor, commemorating Nelson's victory over the French and Spanish in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars.
After the clearance development progressed slowly. The National Gallery was built on the north side between 1832 and 1838 to a design by William Wilkins, and in 1837 the Treasury approved Wilkins' plan for the laying out of the square, but it was not put into effect. In April 1840, following Wilkins' death, new plans by Charles Barry were accepted, and construction started within weeks. For Barry, as for Wilkins, a major consideration was increasing the visual impact of the National Gallery, which had been widely criticised for its lack of grandeur. He dealt with the complex sloping site by excavating the main area to the level of the footway between Cockspur Street and the Strand, and constructing a high balustraded terrace with a roadway on the north side, and steps at each end leading to the main level. Wilkins had proposed a similar solution with a central flight of steps. All the stonework was of granite from Aberdeen. In 1845 four Bude-Lights with octagonal glass lanterns were installed. Two, opposite the National Gallery, are on tall bronze columns, and two, in the south-west and south-east corners of the square, on shorter bronze columns on top of wider granite columns. They were designed by Barry and manufactured by Stevens and Son, of Southwark.
In 1841 it was decided that two fountains should be included in the layout. The estimated budget, excluding paving and sculptures, was £11,000. The earth removed was used to level Green Park. The square was originally surfaced with tarmacadam, which was replaced with stone in the 1920s.
Trafalgar Square was opened to the public on 1 May 1844.
Nelson's Column
was planned independently of Barry's work. In 1838 a Nelson Memorial Committee had approached Her Majesty's Government proposing that a monument to the victory of Trafalgar, funded by public subscription, should be erected in the square. A competition was held and won by the architect William Railton, who proposed a Corinthinan column topped by a statue of Nelson and guarded by four sculpted lions. The design was approved, but received widespread objections from the public. Construction went ahead beginning in 1840 but with the height reduced to. The column was completed and the statue raised in November 1843.The last of the bronze reliefs on the column's pedestals was not completed until May 1854, and the four lions, although part of the original design, were only added in 1867. Each lion weighs seven tons. A hoarding remained around the base of Nelson's Column for some years and some of its upper scaffolding remained in place. Landseer, the sculptor, had asked for a lion that had died at the London Zoo to be brought to his studio. He took so long to complete sketches that its corpse began to decompose and some parts had to be improvised. The statues have paws that resemble cats more than lions.
Barry was unhappy about Nelson's Column being placed in the square. In July 1840, when its foundations had been laid, he told a parliamentary select committee that "it would in my opinion be desirable that the area should be wholly free from all insulated objects of art".
In 1940, during the Second World War, the Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany developed secret plans to transfer Nelson's Column to Berlin after an expected German invasion, as related by the historian Norman Longmate in If Britain Had Fallen.
The square has been Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens since 1996.
Terrorist bombings
The square was the target of two suffragette bombings in 1913 and 1914. This was as part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign of 1912–1914, in which suffragettes carried out a series of politically-motivated bombing and arson attacks nationwide as part of their campaign for women's suffrage.The first attack occurred on 15 May 1913. A bomb was planted in the public area outside the National Gallery, but failed to explode. A second attack occurred at St Martin-in-the-Fields church at the north-east corner of the square on 4 April 1914. A bomb exploded inside the church, blowing out the windows and showering passers-by with broken glass. The bomb then started a fire. In the aftermath a mass of people rushed to the scene, many of whom aggressively expressed their anger towards the suffragettes. Churches were a particular target during the campaign, as it was believed that the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women's suffrage. Between 1913 and 1914 thirty-two churches were attacked nationwide. In the weeks after the bombing, there were also attacks on Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral.