Description
Trafalgar Square is London's great public square, in Westminster, with the National Gallery on its north side. It is where the city meets to celebrate, protest and welcome the New Year, under the tall column of an admiral.
At its heart rises Nelson's Column, 169 feet of granite, or about 52 meters, with a statue of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson on top. The statue was raised in 1843, and the square, named after Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805, opened to the public in 1844.
Four bronze lions, each weighing seven tons, guard the base. They were added only in 1867. The sculptor, Edwin Landseer, worked from a dead lion borrowed from the zoo, but he took so long that it began to rot, which is why the paws look more like a cat's.
On either side, two fountains by Edwin Lutyens, from 1937 to 1939, replaced the Victorian ones, which went to Canada. In the northwest corner, the fourth plinth stood empty for years. Since 1999 it has hosted a series of contemporary artworks, specially commissioned.
Around the square stand the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, with its tall steeple, South Africa House and Canada House. A point in the square is considered the official center of London, from which distances to the capital are measured.
The place has always been busy. Under the south side, builders in the 1950s found the bones of lions, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses from a warm spell some 120,000 years ago. Later the kings kept their hawks and horses here, in the Royal Mews, until George IV moved them and John Nash cleared the area.
It remains the city's meeting place. Every Christmas since 1947 Norway has sent a Norway spruce, in thanks for Britain's help in the war, and it is lit in a ceremony. In 1887 the Bloody Sunday riot took place here, and big rallies still gather under the lions.
Pigeons, once about 35,000 of them, were removed from 2001. In the Second World War Nazi Germany reportedly had a plan to move Nelson's Column to Berlin after an invasion.
At its heart rises Nelson's Column, 169 feet of granite, or about 52 meters, with a statue of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson on top. The statue was raised in 1843, and the square, named after Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805, opened to the public in 1844.
Four bronze lions, each weighing seven tons, guard the base. They were added only in 1867. The sculptor, Edwin Landseer, worked from a dead lion borrowed from the zoo, but he took so long that it began to rot, which is why the paws look more like a cat's.
On either side, two fountains by Edwin Lutyens, from 1937 to 1939, replaced the Victorian ones, which went to Canada. In the northwest corner, the fourth plinth stood empty for years. Since 1999 it has hosted a series of contemporary artworks, specially commissioned.
Around the square stand the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, with its tall steeple, South Africa House and Canada House. A point in the square is considered the official center of London, from which distances to the capital are measured.
The place has always been busy. Under the south side, builders in the 1950s found the bones of lions, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses from a warm spell some 120,000 years ago. Later the kings kept their hawks and horses here, in the Royal Mews, until George IV moved them and John Nash cleared the area.
It remains the city's meeting place. Every Christmas since 1947 Norway has sent a Norway spruce, in thanks for Britain's help in the war, and it is lit in a ceremony. In 1887 the Bloody Sunday riot took place here, and big rallies still gather under the lions.
Pigeons, once about 35,000 of them, were removed from 2001. In the Second World War Nazi Germany reportedly had a plan to move Nelson's Column to Berlin after an invasion.