View of Trafalgar Square, City of Westminster, looking north. Taken on Trafalgar Day, 21st October, commemorating the naval victory and Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. 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. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's memorial column and sculpture was built 1839-1842, to the design of William Railton with a fluted granite column and Corinthian capital. The statue was by E. H. Baily and the bas-relief panels around the base depicting Nelson's famous naval battles by J. E. Carew, J. Ternouth, M. L. Watson and W. F. Woodington. The four lions by Sir Edwin Landseer were cast by Baron Marochetti and added 1867. The monument is Grade I listed, number 1276052. The monument is garlanded with wreaths, one with the motto 'God and My Country'. The square is thronged with people and a horse-drawn omnibus of 'London Tramways' and horse-drawn cart are stationary by the monument. Behind the monument is a bronze statue of General Charles George Gordon by Hamo Thornycroft. Gordon was lauded as a British war hero after his death at the end of the Siege of Khartoum in January 1885. Unveiled in Trafalgar Square on 16 October 1888 it was moved from Trafalgar Square in 1943 to the grounds of Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire. In a speech in the House of Commons on 5 May 1948, Winston Churchill (then Leader of the Opposition) advocated a return of the statue to its original location. It was restored in 1953 on the Victoria Embankment. On the northern side of the square is The National Gallery built 1832-38 by William Wilkins, to house The Angerstein Collection of paintings purchased by the government for The Royal Academy. The central Corinthian portico is raised on a podium wall with flanking steps and set back behind the portico pediment is a stone cupola dome. The secondary Corinthian porticoes have parapets raised over a central bay. The terminal pavilions have pairs of giant pilasters surmounted by small octagonal stone cupolas with pierced work openings. It is Grade I listed, number 1066236. On the north-eastern corner of the square the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The earliest reference to the church is from 1222, and Henry VIII rebuilt the church in 1542 to keep plague victims in the area from having to pass through his Palace of Whitehall. By 1710 the walls and roof were in a state of decay, and in 1720, Parliament passed an act for the rebuilding of the church allowing for a sum of up to £22,000, to be raised by a rate on the parishioners. The current church was built 1722-26 to a neoclassical design 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.
