Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Political, religious and regal power has emanated from
Whitehall
and
Westminster
for almost a millennium. It was King Edward the Confessor (1042-66) who first
established Westminster as a royal and ecclesiastical power base, some three miles west
of the City of London. The embryonic English parliament used to meet in the abbey
and eventually took over the old royal palace of Westminster when Henry VIII moved
out to Whitehall. Henry's sprawling Whitehall Palace burnt down in 1698 and was
slowly replaced by government o
ces, so that by the nineteenth century Whitehall had
become the “heart of the Empire”, its ministries ruling over a quarter of the world's
population. Even now, though the UK's world status has diminished and its royalty
and clergy no longer wield much real power or receive the same respect, the institutions
that run the country inhabit roughly the same geographical area: Westminster for the
politicians, Whitehall for the ministers and civil servants.
1
Trafalgar Square
!
Charing Cross
As one of the few large public squares in London,
Trafalgar Square
has been both a
tourist attraction and the main focus for political demonstrations
for over a century
and a half (see box below). Nowadays, most folk come here to see
Nelson's Column
,
or to visit the
National Gallery
, though a huge range of events, commemorations and
celebrations are staged here throughout the year, from St Patrick's Day shenanigans to
Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Each December, the square is graced with a giant
Christmas tree covered in fairy lights, donated by Norway in thanks for Britain's
support during World War II, and carol singers battle nightly with the tra
c.
For centuries, Trafalgar Square was the site of the
King's Mews
, established in the
thirteenth century by Edward I, who kept the royal hawks and the falconers here
(the term “mews” comes from falconry: the birds were caged or “mewed up” there
whilst changing their plumage). Chaucer was Clerk of the Mews for a time, and by
Tudor times there were stables here, too. During the Civil War they were turned into
barracks and later used as a prison for Cavaliers. In the 1760s, George III began to
move the mews to Buckingham Palace, and by the late 1820s,
John Nash
had designed
the new square (though he didn't live to see his plan executed). he Neoclassical
National Gallery filled up the northern side in 1838, followed shortly afterwards by
the central focal point, Nelson's Column, though the famous bronze lions didn't arrive
until 1868. The development of the rest of the square was equally haphazard, though
the overall effect is unified by the safe Neoclassical style of the buildings, and the square
remains one of London's grandest architectural highlights.
A HISTORY OF PROTEST
Installed in 1845 in an attempt to deter the gathering of urban mobs, the Trafalgar Square
fountains have failed supremely to prevent the square from becoming a focus of
political
protest
. The first major demo was held in 1848 when the Chartists assembled to demand
universal suffrage before marching to Kennington Common. Protests were banned until
the 1880s, when the emerging Labour movement began to gather here, culminating in
Bloody Sunday
,
1887, when hundreds of demonstrators were injured, and three killed, by
the police. To allow the police to call quickly for reinforcements, a police phone box was
built into one of the stone bollards in the southeast corner of the square, with a direct link
to Scotland Yard.
Throughout the 1980s, there was a continuous
anti-apartheid demonstration
outside
South Africa House, and in 1990, the square was the scene of the
Poll Tax Riot
, which
precipitated the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. Smaller demos still take place here, but
London's largest demonstrations - like the ones against military intervention in Iraq and
Afghanistan - simply pass through, en route to the more spacious environs of Hyde Park.
