View of Trafalgar Square - London Picture Archive

Title

View of Trafalgar Square

Reference

SC_PHL_01_537_80_3442 (Collage 141247)

Date

Collection

London Metropolitan Archives: LCC Photograph Library

Description

View of Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking west, with a large crowd of men, women and children. The buildings are decorated with flags and bunting, so this may be celebrations to mark the end of World War I. 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. A throng of people are sitting on the deeply lipped granite retaining walls of one of the two fountains. These were remodelled in 1939. To the right, the northern balustraded terrace wall and stone bollards enclose the open space of the square. These features are Grade II* listed, number 1066235. At the northwest corner of the square is an empty plinth (with people sitting on it). It was originally intended for an equestrian statue of William IV, but insufficient funds were raised so it remained bare for 150 years. Since 1998, the Fourth Plinth Project (now Commission), commissions modern art works to occupy the plinth on a temporary basis. On the western side of the square are the buildings of The Union Club and The Royal College of Physicians. Built 1824-27 by Sir Robert Smirke and altered into Canada House in 1925 by Septimus Warwick. Faced in Bath stone with two storeys, attics and a balustraded parapet (with a number of people standing on the roof). It is Grade II* listed, number 1217724. At the southwest corner of the square is a 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. At the southwest side of the square, on the corner with Cockspur Street, 34 Cockspur Street bears a sign for 'Dent and Dent’ with a large clock. This was a watch and clockmakers established in 1814 by Edward J. Dent, who manufactured the Standard Clock at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich which was to keep “Greenwich Mean Time”, the time to which all others in the Empire were referred (better known today as G.M.T.) and continued to do so until replaced by an electronic clock in 1946. Dent also made probably the most famous clock in the world - the Great Clock for the Houses of Parliament, known as Big Ben. They also manufactured a clock for the Crystal Palace in 1851, and when this was dismantled, it was erected at King’s Cross Station where it remains. The company continues to trade. Number 33 was the premises of Mariner Tours, tourist agents, and Gerard Ravelli, tourist agent. Above the building, on the adjacent parapet wall, is a sign advertising The Cunard Line.