Trafalgar Square

• 1. Origins And Naming

  ›

  The site now known as Trafalgar Square has been a significant landmark since the 13th century. During the reign of Edward I of England, it hosted the King's Mews, running north from the T-junction in the south called Charing Cross. The name Royal Mews comes from the practice of keeping hawks here for moulting. After a fire in 1534, the mews were rebuilt as stables and remained there until George IV moved them to Buckingham Palace. In 1826 the Commissioners of Woods instructed John Nash to draw up plans for clearing a large area south of Kent's stable block. His plans left open the whole area that became the square except for a block reserved for a new building for the Royal Academy of Arts. The square was initially to be named after William IV commemorating his accession to the throne in 1830. Around 1835 it was decided that the square would be named after the Battle of Trafalgar as suggested by the architect George Ledwell Taylor. This battle took place on the 21st of October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar southwest Spain.

• 2. Architectural Evolution

  ›

  Trafalgar Square opened to the public on the 1st of May 1844. Progress stalled after the death of Nash in 1835 and the square did not open until nearly a decade later. In April 1840 following Wilkins' death new plans by Charles Barry were accepted and construction started within weeks. For Barry a major consideration was increasing the visual impact of the National Gallery which had been widely criticised for its lack of grandeur. He dealt with the complex sloping site by excavating the main area to the level of the footway between Cockspur Street and the Strand. He constructed a high balustraded terrace with a roadway on the north side and steps at each end leading to the main level. All the stonework was of granite from Aberdeen. In 1845 four Bude-Lights with octagonal glass lanterns were installed. Two opposite the National Gallery are on tall bronze columns and two in the south-west and south-east corners are on shorter bronze columns on top of wider granite columns. They were designed by Barry and manufactured by Stevens and Son of Southwark.

• 3. Monuments And Sculptures

  ›

  Nelson's Column was planned independently of Barry's work. A competition was held and won by the architect William Railton who proposed a Corinthian column topped by a statue of Nelson and guarded by four sculpted lions. Construction went ahead beginning in 1840 but with the height reduced to 169 feet. The column was completed and the statue raised in November 1843. The last of the bronze reliefs on the column's pedestals was not completed until May 1854 and the four lions although part of the original design were only added in 1867. Each lion weighs seven tons. Landseer the sculptor had asked for a lion that had died at the London Zoo to be brought to his studio. He took so long to complete sketches that its corpse began to decompose and some parts had to be improvised. The statues have paws that resemble cats more than lions. In 1940 during the Second World War the Schutzstaffel of Nazi Germany developed secret plans to transfer Nelson's Column to Berlin after an expected German invasion as related by the historian Norman Longmate in If Britain Had Fallen published in 1972.

• 4. Political Protests And Riots

  ›

  The square has become a social and political focus for visitors and Londoners developing over its history from an esplanade peopled with figures of national heroes into the country's foremost place politique according to historian Rodney Mace. Since its construction it has been a venue for political demonstrations. The great Chartist rally in 1848 a campaign for social reform by the working class began in the square. A ban on political rallies remained in effect until the 1880s when the emerging Labour movement particularly the Social Democratic Federation began holding protests. On the 13th of November 1886 also known as Black Monday protesters rallied against unemployment leading to a riot in Pall Mall. A larger riot Bloody Sunday occurred in the square on the 13th of November 1887. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's first Aldermaston March protesting against the Atomic Weapons Establishment began in the square in 1958. One of the first significant demonstrations of the modern era was held in the square on the 17th of May 1961 by the Committee of 100 which included the philosopher Bertrand Russell. In December 2009 participants from the Camp for Climate Action occupied the square for the two weeks during which the United Nations Conference on Climate Change took place in Copenhagen.

• 5. Seasonal Traditions

  ›

  A Christmas ceremony has been held in the square every year since 1947. A Norway spruce or sometimes a fir is presented by Norway's capital city Oslo as London's Christmas tree a token of gratitude for Britain's support during the Second World War. Prince Olav and the Norwegian government also lived in exile in London throughout the war. The Christmas tree is decorated with lights that are switched on at a seasonal ceremony usually held twelve days before Christmas Day. The festivity is open to the public and attracts a large number of people. The switch-on is usually followed by several nights of Christmas carol singing and other performances and events. On the twelfth night of Christmas the tree is taken down for recycling. Westminster City Council threatened to abandon the event to save £5,000 in 1980 but the decision was reversed. The first tree was 30 feet tall but more recently has been around 60 feet. In 1987 several protesters chained themselves to the tree. In 1990 a man sawed into the tree with a chainsaw a few hours before a New Year's Eve party was scheduled to take place. He was arrested and the tree was repaired by tree surgeons who removed gouged sections from the trunk while the tree was suspended from a crane.

• 6. Urban Management And Ecology

  ›

  The square was once famous for feral pigeons and feeding them was a popular activity. Pigeons began flocking to the square before construction was completed and feed sellers became well known in the Victorian era. The desirability of the birds' presence was contentious: their droppings disfigured the stonework and the flock estimated at its peak to be 35,000 was considered a health hazard. A stall seller Bernie Rayner infamously sold bird seed to tourists at inflated prices. In February 2001 the sale of bird seed in the square was stopped and other measures were introduced to discourage the pigeons including the use of birds of prey. Supporters continued to feed the birds but in 2003 Livingstone enacted bylaws to ban feeding them in the square. In September 2007 Westminster City Council passed further bylaws banning feeding birds on the pedestrianised North Terrace and other pavements in the area. Nelson's column was repaired from years of damage from pigeon droppings at a cost of £140,000. A major 18-month redevelopment of the square led by W.S. Atkins with Foster and Partners as sub-consultants was completed in 2003. The work involved closing the eastbound road along the north side and diverting traffic around the other three sides of the square.