Bob the Brit

Archive for the ‘London’ Category

Trafalgar Square can be considered one of twin the hearts of London’s West End – along with  Oxford Circus – it occupies several acres at the junction of The Strand, Charing Cross Road, Whitehall, Northumberland Avenue and The Mall.

It was originally part of the Kings Mews, but the square was developed between 1820 and 1845 – originally to be named William IV Square, but named Trafalgar Square to commemorate Admiral Nelson’s famous victory over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21^st 1805.

The north side of the square is dominated by the National Gallery (Britain’s foremost art gallery/museum) while to the south of the square is a 170ft (52m) column topped by an 18ft (5.5m) statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson. The base of the column bears large brass plaques (formed from captured French cannon) that depict some of Nelson’s more famous victories: the Battle of Cape St Vincent, the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of Copenhagen and the Nelson’s death Trafalgar. There are also four large bronze lions sculpted by Edwin Landseer.

National Gallery, Fountain and Olympic Clock

The middle of the square features two large pools with fountains, designed by Edwin Lutyens. These are more than just ornamental; their placement was designed to reduce the ‘public’ area of the square, thus providing less space for riots or mass demonstrations.

Nevertheless Trafalgar Square provides a focal point for many public demonstrations, themselves often the culmination of marches through the relatively wide streets in the Westminster area. Other gatherings in the square are less contentious, it’s usually host to London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations (although the fountains are drained), and has hosted several events commemorating London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympiad.

The square is currently host to the official Olympic ‘countdown clock’.

Trafalgar Square is also host to several other statues on plinths, with one plinth on each corner of the square hosting (clock-wise from the north-east corner) King George IV, Major-General Sir Henry Havelock (in the south-east),and General Sir Charles James Napier in the southwest. The fourth plinth (in the north-west) was originally meant to host a statue of King William IV (indeed, as I mentioned previously, the square was at one time to be called William IV Square) but he was an unpopular monarch and the funds required to build a statue were never raised.

4th Plinth at Trafalgar Square

The ‘fourth plinth’ stood empty until 1998 and since then a series of artworks have occupied it. Currently (October 2012) the plinth is host to a 1/30 scale model of Nelson’s flagship ‘Victory’ – in a bottle.

Another Trafalgar Square tradition is that of the Christmas Tree, this is (as any child that grew up in Britain in the fifties or sixties will tell you) an annual gift from the people of Norway, in recognition of Britain’s support for Norway during the 2^nd World War.

Marble Arch is situated at the westernmost end of Oxford Street, where Oxford Street intersects with Park Lane and Edgware Road.

Designed by John Nash, and constructed in 1828, the arch originally designed stood as the east entrance to the central courtyard of Buckingham Palace (facing The Mall) however in 1855, the arch was moved to its present location.

Perceived wisdom is that the arch was moved from Buckingham Palace because it was too narrow for the State Coach to pass through but, in fact, the gold state coach passed under it during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

However, only members of the royal family and the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, have been allowed to pass through the arch in ceremonial procession.

Marble Arch is situated close to the site of the Tyburn Gallows, one of London’s most famous (infamous?) places of public execution. The first recorded hanging at the ‘Tyburn Tree’ took place in 1196 (William Fitz Osbert or alternatively ‘William with the long beard’ – the convicted leader of an uprising ‘of the poor’) and the last (John Austin – a Highwayman) in 1783.

Convicts en-route from prison to Tyburn were forbidden alcohol and were said to be ‘on the wagon’, but legend has it that the aforementioned wagons would stop en-route to allow the condemned ‘one for the road’.

The Swan Tavern at Lancaster Gate lays claim to be the stopping point for such ‘last orders’, but as most convicts’ journeys to Tyburn would have been due east along Oxford Street from Newgate, it must be said that it would have required a somewhat tortuous route.

As I have written previously, in medieval times London’s South Bank was a centre for cultured (and less cultured) entertainment. The lack of the constraints enforced north of the River Thames by both the Cities of London and Westminster meant that taverns, bear pits, ‘stews’ (legalised brothels) and theatres flourished on the South Bank.

One such theatre was the Globe Theatre, built in 1599 the theatre company known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. What is perhaps most notable about this particular group is that their playwright in residence was one William Shakespeare.

The original Globe Theatre was built in 1599 but destroyed by fire in 1613 when a prop cannon misfired during a performance of Henry VIII.  The theatre was rebuilt by June 1614 and finally closed down by the puritans in 1642.

The theatre itself was thought to have been an open air amphiteatre, some three stories high, with an ‘apron’ stage thrusting out into a courtyard area. Spectators could watch the performances from the galleries around the courtyard or from the yard itself. Spectators within the yard were known as ‘groundlings’ who would each pay a penny to watch the plays – equivalent to around £8.50 at today’s prices.

In recent years the Globe was recreated on a site a few hundred yards from the original, funded after a long campaign led by the American actor Sam Wanamaker.  The new Globe theatre opened in 1997, after Wanamaker’s death, and is home to performances of the works of Shakespeare and others each summer.

Groundling tickets these days now cost around five pounds – even cheaper in real terms than the 1620 price.

On April 29^th 2011 Prince William (of Wales) married his fiancée Kate Middleton in London’s Westminster Abbey. They are now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Abbey has a long tradition of royal weddings, dating back to the year 1100, when King Henry I of England (a son of William the Conqueror) was married to Matilda of Scotland; Prince William’s grandmother – Queen Elizabeth II was married in the abbey in 1947.

The Abbey’s origins can be traced back to Edward the Confessor, who consecrated the first Abbey on the site in 1065, the location was said to have been the site of a vision of Saint Peter nearby. Edward was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England (prior to the Norman conquest in 1066) and in 1163 King Henry II oversaw the interment of Edward’s remains in the Abbey as part of his canonisation to Saint Edward.

The current Abbey was built between 1245 and 1517, while the distinctive west towers were added in the 18^th century, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor – a student of Sir Christopher Wren. Hawksmoor famously designed six London churches after the great fire on London in 1666, while Wren designed St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London.

Geoffrey Chaucer was living and working in the Abbey (as ‘Master of the King’s Works’) at the time of his death in 1400 and was buried in the Abbey’s grounds. In 1556 a more substantial tomb was erected in an area south of the nave, and other writers chose to be buried in what has become known as ‘Poets’ Corner’. Notable writers buried in Poets’ Corner include William Blake, Robert Burns, Charles Dickens, Samuel Johnson, Rudyard Kipling, T.S. Eliot, the Bronte Sisters, William Wordsworth and Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson.

More importantly, since 1066 the Abbey has been the venue for the coronation of every English monarch (with the notable exception  of king Henry III – as Westminster was under the control of Louis VIII of France as part of his campaign for the English throne).  The scenes in the recent film ‘The Kings Speech’ depicted events in the Abbey before the coronation, but were actually filmed at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, to the north and east of London.

The actual coronation takes place while the monarch is seated in King (or Saint) Edward’s Chair (carved in 1297) which in turn houses the ‘Stone of Scone’ during the period of the coronation, the stone was returned to the scots in 1996 – the scots have promised to lend it back for future coronations.

In my article on Mayors and Lord Mayors  I briefly mentioned the Lord Mayors Show.

The show was first held in 1215, when King John grated the City of London permission to elect its own mayor, but also insisted that the Lord Mayor should travel to the City of Westminster to swear loyalty to the crown. This tradition has continued uninterrupted by the Black Death, the Great Fire of London and the Blitz, it has only been cancelled once – on the occasion of the death of the Duke of Wellington.

The Lord Mayors Show was the first event ever to be broadcast live on television, a tradition that continues to this day.  

The show takes place on the second Saturday in November each year; the date and route of the parade was fixed in the 1950′s as in the past the route would travel through the new Lord Mayor’s electoral ward, which meant that each year’s parade would take a different route, causing much confusion and disruption in the City.

The procession is preceded by a flypast by the Royal Air Force, then leaves the Lord Mayor’s official residence (the Mansion House) at 11 a.m.. The procession heads west along Cheapside towards St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Courts of Justice (also known as the Old Bailey) then down to Victoria Embankment before heading back to Mansion House, the last floats arriving back at around 4 p.m.

Around half a million people pile into the City of London to watch the pomp and pageantry, and around 6,000 people will take part in the three mile long procession, alongside 140 floats, carriages – including the richly gilded State Coach – marching bands, floats and other vehicles.

The parade is then followed by a fair in Paternoster Square near St. Paul’s Cathedral and a firework display on the River Thames, starting at about 5pm.

And for the record, the Mansion House is almost opposite the Bank of England, at the heart of the City, close to ‘Bank’ underground station, several hundred yards away from the underground station that bears the name ‘Mansion House’.