Trafalgar Square

The story of Trafalgar Square

You’re standing in one of central London’s great meeting places, a public square in the City of Westminster that was established in the early 19th century around Charing Cross. Its name remembers the Battle of Trafalgar, the British naval victory over France and Spain on 21 October 1805 off Cape Trafalgar.

What makes the square most striking is the way it concentrates so many public monuments in one open space, with Nelson’s Column at the centre. That column is 169-foot (52 m) high, and it was built to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar. Around it are the fountains, public sculpture, and the buildings that frame the square, including the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Canada House and South Africa House.

The site has a much older history than the square itself. It has been significant since the 1200s, because distances from London are measured from Charing Cross. In the reign of Edward I of England, part of this area held the King’s Mews. The mews later stood at the western end of the Strand, and after a fire in 1534 they were rebuilt as stables. They remained here until George IV moved them to Buckingham Palace, which opened the way for redevelopment by John Nash.

Nash’s plans began in 1826, when the Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues instructed him to clear a large area south of the old stable block. The Charing Cross Act was passed the same year, and clearance started soon after. Progress then stalled after Nash died in 1835, and the square did not open until 1844. Britannica places the monument’s construction in the 1840s, and the square’s development on the former King’s Mews.

The name itself was not given immediately. It was named after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1835. The word “Trafalgar” is Spanish, with Arabic origin.

If you look to the south side, on the original site of Charing Cross, you can see the bronze equestrian statue of Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur. It was cast in 1633 and placed here in 1678. On the north wall are three busts of admirals: John Jellicoe, David Beatty, and Andrew Cunningham. The first two were installed in 1948 with the square’s fountains, and the third was unveiled on 2 April 1967. The fountains were added in 1845.

The square has also been used as a stage for public life. It has hosted community gatherings and political demonstrations, including Bloody Sunday in 1887, the culmination of the first Aldermaston March, anti-war protests and campaigns against climate change. The Mayor supports that democratic tradition and gives access to the square for such causes. It is also a centre of annual celebrations on New Year’s Eve. Since 1947, a Christmas tree has been donated here by the government of Norway and is erected for twelve days before and after Christmas Day.

There is another layer under your feet. Building work on the south side in the late 1950s revealed river terrace deposits containing fossils from the Last Interglacial, around 130-115,000 years ago. Among the finds were cave lions, rhinoceroses, straight-tusked elephant and hippopotamus, plus feces of cave hyenas.

Today the square is maintained by the Greater London Authority and is listed as a Grade I listed park and garden since 1996-11-22. If you’re taking in the main view, stand back far enough to read the central column against the fountains and then look to the edges: the square is only 0.92 hectare, but it gathers together the city’s history, protest, ceremony and commemoration in a single place.