South Africa House in Trafalgar Square

Title

Reference

SC_PHL_01_537_64_4483 (Collage 141160)

Date

Collection

London Metropolitan Archives: LCC Photograph Library

Description

View across Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking southeast from The National Gallery towards South Africa House. 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. South Africa House was built between 1931-1933 by Sir Herbert Baker and Alexander Thomson Scott. It is steel framed, 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. Seven storeys high, including 2 attic storeys above with cornice and balustrade. The main elevation facing Trafalgar Square is thirteen windows wide. It is Grade II* listed, number 1066238. To the left is a statue of George Washington. A bronze replica of Houdon's 1780 marble statue at Richmond, Virginia, it was presented to the British as a gift from the USA in 1921. It is Grade II* listed, number 1357305. Behind the statue is the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Built i1722-26 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. There is a view along Dungannon Street and at the end is Charing Cross Station and hotel. The terminus hotel of the Charing Cross Railway, now the Charing Cross Hotel, was built in 1863-4 in French Renaissance style by Edmund Middleton Barry, son of Sir Charles Barry. It suffered bomb damage in World War II and was reconstructed in 1953 by F. J. Wills and Son. The railway terminus opened in 1864 after the construction of Hungerford Bridge which carried trains from Waterloo across the Thames. The hotel opened in 1865 with 214 rooms. The building is Grade II* listed, number 1236707. Barry designed the forecourt shared with the station, with boundary railings and piers topped by gas lamps, as well as designing the replica of the original Charing Cross; The Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, carved by the firm of Thomas Earp in Portland Stone on an Aberdeen granite plinth. Octagonal and rising in three main stages, with a spire and cross, in fourteenth-century style. It is Grade II* listed, number 1236708. The original Eleanor Cross was one of twelve memorial crosses erected by Edward I of England in memory of his first wife Eleanor of Castille. Numerous vehicles and pedestrians are in view.