A view of the front elevations of buildings in Charing Cross, Westminster. The building on the left with an advertisement for Bovril beef drink at the roof level is numbers 4-8 Charing Cross. It still exists as Trafalgar Buildings at number 1 Northumberland Avenue. Other buildings to its right are numbers 9-14 Charing Cross. Number 9 Charing Cross, now number 3 Whitehall, dates from 1890-1900 and was Grade II listed in 1987; listing number 1224053. These buildings still exist with addresses in Whitehall. Buildings on the right include numbers 55-57 Charing Cross. The buildings no longer exist, having been demolished to open up access to Admiralty Arch. This part of Charing Cross is now Trafalgar Square. An equestrian statue in bronze of King Charles I can be seen in front of Trafalgar Buildings. The statue is the work of the French sculptor Hubert Le Sueur, and was probably cast in 1633. It is considered the central point of London and stands on the site of one of the Eleanor crosses erected by Edward I, which had stood for three and a half centuries until 1647. The cross had been used to define the centre of London and a plaque by the statue indicates that road signage distances to London are still measured from this point. The statue faces down Whitehall towards Charles I's place of execution at Banqueting House in 1649.
The first Renaissance-style equestrian statue in England, it was commissioned by Charles's Lord High Treasurer Richard Weston for the garden of his country house in Roehampton, Surrey (now in South London). Following the English Civil War the statue was sold to a metalsmith to be broken down, but he hid it until the Restoration in 1660. It was installed in its current, far more prominent location in the centre of London in 1675, and the elaborately carved pedestal in Portland stone dates from that time. Dating from 1633, the statue was Grade I listed in 1970; listing number 1357291. Dating from 1881-2, Trafalgar Buildings was Grade II listed in 1987; listing number 1266434. Several horse-drawn carts and carriages as well as pedestrians can be seen. Towards the left of the picture, an elaborately decorated triple lamp standard dates from 1880 and was Grade II listed in 1970; listing number 1066284. A group of three putti holding festoons form the base of the shaft.
