Trafalgar Square

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Trafalgar Square is quintessentially London - it's where Londoners go to count down to the new year, to see concerts and speakers, to congregate and demonstrate. It is this symbolic value that led Hitler to plan to remove Nelson's Column to Berlin in the event of a German victory in World War II. In past years, the famous London pigeons flocked here, and the tourists flocked to feed them, though this has now been banned (click here to read about the ex-Mayor's 'batte of the pigeons' in our blog) and the birds are now conspicuous by their absence.

Trafalgar Square was once home to a different set of birds - before it was built, it was the site of the Royal mews - a 'mews' being the place that falcons were kept, with their falconers close by, ready to muster the birds when a hunt was due. Geoffrey Chaucer (writer of the Canterbury Tales) was a Clerk of the Mews here. After the mews burnt down, a stables was built on the site. These buildings were then torn down to make way for the new Trafalgar Square in 1840.

Nelson's Column was completed in 1843 and commemorates Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory (and death) at the Battle of Trafalgar. The development of the Square has always been a little piecemeal. The lions weren't added until 1867, after Edwin Landseer ordered a dead lion from London zoo to ensure he'd sculpted them correctly. The fountains were only 2 years behind Nelson's Column, but were then re-sculpted by Lutyens in 1939, and there in turn we remodelled after the second world war. In 2003 the area of the Square outside the National Gallery was pedestrianised.

The 'fourth plinth' was due to have a statue of King William IV but when he died he failed to leave sufficient funds for his statue to be erected. The plinth thus remained empty until 2001, when a programme of (often controversial) artworks that changed every 12-18 months was instituted.

These virtual tours show Trafalgar Square at certain points in its recent history. One before the pigeons departed, and the other when the Square was turfed as a publicity stunt in 2007. Please click on the thumbnails to view at full-size.