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Trafalgar Square

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of Great
Britain

   Trafalgar Square viewed from the northeast corner.
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   Trafalgar Square viewed from the northeast corner.
   Trafalgar Square viewed from the north
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   Trafalgar Square viewed from the north
   Trafalgar Square and Canada House.
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   Trafalgar Square and Canada House.
   Canada House, in the west.
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   Canada House, in the west.
   South Africa House, in the east.
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   South Africa House, in the east.
   Fountain detail.
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   Fountain detail.
   Trafalgar Square at night.
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   Trafalgar Square at night.
   The current statue on the fourth plinth: Marc Quinn's Alison Lapper
   Pregnant (2005).
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   The current statue on the fourth plinth: Marc Quinn's Alison Lapper
   Pregnant ( 2005).
   View across the square from the southeast to the National Gallery.
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   View across the square from the southeast to the National Gallery.

   Trafalgar Square is a square in central London that commemorates the
   Battle of Trafalgar ( 1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic
   Wars. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's
   Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar
   Square". Its coordinates are 51°30′28″N, 0°07′39″W Coordinates:
   51°30′28″N, 0°07′39″W.

   The northern area of the square had been the site of the King's Mews
   since the time of Edward I, while the southern end was the original
   Charing Cross, where the Strand from the City met Whitehall, coming
   north from Westminster. As the midpoint between these twin cities,
   Charing Cross is to this day considered the heart of London, from which
   all distances are measured.

   In the 1820s the Prince Regent engaged the landscape architect John
   Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his
   Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the
   square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845.

   The square, a popular site for political demonstrations, is the site of
   Nelson's Column, and related sculptures of note.

Overview

   The square consist of a large central area surrounded by roadways on
   three sides, and stairs leading to the National Gallery on the other.
   The roads which cross the square form part of the busy A4 road, and
   prior to 2003, the square was surrounded by a one-way traffic system on
   all sides. Underpasses attached to Charing Cross tube station still
   allow pedestrians to avoid traffic. Recent works have reduced the width
   of the roads and closed the northern side of the square to traffic.

   Nelson's Column is in the centre of the square, surrounded by fountains
   designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1939 and four huge bronze lions
   sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer; the metal used is said to have been
   recycled from the cannon of the French fleet. The column is topped by a
   statue of Lord Nelson, the admiral who commanded the British Fleet at
   Trafalgar.

   On the north side of the square is the National Gallery and to its east
   the St Martin's-in-the-Fields church. The square adjoins The Mall via
   Admiralty Arch to the southwest. To the south is Whitehall, to the east
   Strand and South Africa House, to the north Charing Cross Road and on
   the west side is Canada House.

   At the corners of the square are four plinths; the two northern ones
   were intended to be used for equestrian statues, and thus are wider
   than the two southern. Three of them hold statues: George IV
   (northeast, 1840s), Henry Havelock (southeast, 1861, by William
   Behnes), and Sir Charles James Napier (southwest, 1855). Mayor of
   London Ken Livingstone controversially expressed a desire to see the
   two generals replaced with statues that "ordinary Londoners would
   know".

   On the lawn in front of the National Gallery are two statues, James II
   to the west of the entrance portico and George Washington to the east.
   The latter statue, a gift from the state of Virginia, stands on soil
   that was imported from the United States. This was done in order to
   honour Washington's declaration that he would never again set foot on
   British soil.

   In 1888 the statue of General Charles George Gordon was erected. In
   1943 the statue was removed and, in 1953, re-sited on the Victoria
   Embankment.

   The Square has become an enormously important symbolic social and
   political location for visitors and Londoners alike, developing over
   its history from "an esplanade peopled with figures of national heroes,
   into the country’s foremost place politique," as historian Rodney Mace
   has written. Its symbolic importance was demonstrated in 1940 when the
   Nazi SS developed secret plans to transfer Nelson's Column to Berlin
   following an expected German invasion, as related by Norman Longmate in
   If Britain Had Fallen ( 1972).

The fourth plinth

   The fourth plinth on the northwest corner was intended to hold a statue
   of William IV, but remained empty due to insufficient funds. Later,
   agreement could not be reached over which monarch or military hero to
   place there.

   In 1999, the Royal Society of Arts conceived the idea of the Fourth
   Plinth Project, which temporarily occupied the plinth with a succession
   of works commissioned from three contemporary artists. These were:
     * Ecce Homo, by Mark Wallinger ( 1999)
     * Regardless of History, by Bill Woodrow ( 2000)
     * Monument, by Rachel Whiteread ( 2001)

   Wallinger's Ecce Homo — whose title, in Latin, means "behold the man",
   a Biblical reference — was of a life-sized man. Atop the huge plinth,
   designed for larger-than-life statuary, it looked minuscule. Some
   commentators said that, far from making the man look insignificant, his
   apparent tininess drew the eye powerfully; they interpreted it as a
   commentary on human delusions of grandeur.

   Whiteread's Monument, by an artist already notable for her
   controversial Turner Prize-winning work "House" and the Judenplatz
   Holocaust Memorial in Vienna, was a cast of the plinth in transparent
   resin, and placed upside-down on top of the original. Following the
   exhibition project, some wished to see it continue in this role.

   Various companies have used the plinth (often without permission) as a
   platform for publicity stunts, including a model of David Beckham by
   Madame Tussauds. The London-based American harmonica player Larry Adler
   jokingly suggested erecting a statue of Moby Dick, which would then be
   called the " Plinth of Whales".

   The best use of the fourth plinth remains the subject of debate. On
   March 24, 2003 an appeal was launched by Wendy Woods, the widow of the
   anti- apartheid journalist Donald Woods, hoping to raise £400,000 to
   pay for a nine- foot high statue of Nelson Mandela by Ian Walters. The
   relevance of the location is that South Africa House, the South African
   high commission, scene of many anti-apartheid demonstrations, is also
   located on Trafalgar Square.

   A committee convened to consider the RSA's late- 1990s project
   concluded that it had been a success and "unanimously recommended that
   the plinth should continue to be used for an ongoing series of
   temporary works of art commissioned from leading national and
   international artists" . After several years in which the plinth stood
   empty, the new Greater London Authority assumed responsibility for the
   fourth plinth and started its own series of temporary exhibitions:
     * Marc Quinn: Alison Lapper Pregnant ( September 15, 2005)
     * Thomas Schutte: Hotel for the Birds (scheduled for April 2007)

   Quinn's Alison Lapper Pregnant is a 3.6m marble torso- bust of Alison
   Lapper, an artist who was born with no arms and shortened legs due to a
   condition called phocomelia.

   A television ident for the television station Channel 4 shows a CGI
   Channel 4 logo on top of the fourth plinth.

Pigeons

   People feeding the pigeons, circa 1993
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   People feeding the pigeons, circa 1993

   The square is a popular tourist spot in London, and used to be
   particularly famous for its pigeons (Rock Pigeons). Feeding the pigeons
   was a popular activity with Londoners and tourists. The National
   Portrait Gallery displays a 1948 photograph of Elizabeth Taylor posing
   there with bird seed so as to be mobbed by birds. The desirability of
   the birds' presence has long been contentious: their droppings look
   ugly on buildings and damage the stonework, and the flock, estimated at
   its peak to be 35,000, was considered to be a health hazard. In 1996,
   police arrested one man who was estimated to have trapped 1500 birds
   for sale to a middleman; it is assumed that the birds ended up in the
   human food chain.

   In 2000, the sale of bird seed in the square was controversially
   terminated and other measures were introduced to discourage the
   pigeons, including the use of trained falcons. Supporters of the
   pigeons and some tourists continued to feed the birds, but, in 2003,
   Ken Livingstone enacted by-laws to ban the feeding of pigeons within
   the square . There are now relatively few birds in Trafalgar Square and
   it is used for festivals and hired out to film companies, in a way that
   was not feasible in the 1990s.
   Trafalgar Square from the National Gallery (looking south).
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   Trafalgar Square from the National Gallery (looking south).
   Trafalgar Square, 1908.
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   Trafalgar Square, 1908.

Redevelopment

   Members of the public read plans to pedestrianise part of the square,
   February 2003.
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   Members of the public read plans to pedestrianise part of the square,
   February 2003.

   In 2003 the redevelopment of the north side of the square was
   completed. The work involved demolishing part of the wall and building
   a wide set of stairs. This construction includes two Saxon scissor
   lifts for disabled access, public toilets, and a small café. Plans for
   a large staircase had long been discussed, even in original plans for
   the square. The new stairs lead to a large terrace or piazza in front
   of the National Gallery, in what was previously a road. Previously
   access between the square and the Gallery was via two busy crossings at
   the north east and north west corners of the square. The
   pedestrianisation plan was carried out in the face of protests from
   both road-users and pedestrians concerned that the diversion of traffic
   would lead to greater congestion elsewhere in London. However, this
   does not seem to have happened; the reduction in traffic due to the
   London congestion charge may be a factor.

Christmas ceremony

   There has been a Christmas ceremony every year since 1947. A Norway
   Spruce (or sometimes a fir) is given by Norway's capital Oslo and
   presented as London's Christmas tree, as a token of gratitude for
   Britain's support during World War II. (Besides the general war
   support, Norway's then King Haakon and his son Crown Prince Olav, as
   well as the country's government, lived in exile in London throughout
   the war.) As part of the tradition, the Lord Mayor of Westminster
   visits Oslo in the late autumn to take part in the chopping down of the
   tree, and the Mayor of Oslo then goes to London to light the tree at
   the Christmas ceremony.

Political demonstrations

   Anti-war Rally in Trafalgar Square.
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   Anti-war Rally in Trafalgar Square.

   Since its construction, Trafalgar Square has been a venue for political
   demonstrations, though the authorities have often attempted to ban
   them.

   By March of the year Nelson's column opened, the authorities had
   started banning Chartist meetings in the square. A general ban on
   political rallies remained in effect until the 1880s, when the emerging
   Labour movement, particularly the Social Democratic Federation, began
   holding protests there.

   On " Black Monday" ( 8 February 1886), protesters rallied against
   unemployment; this led to a riot in Pall Mall. A larger riot (called
   "Bloody Sunday") occurred in the square on 13 November 1887.

   One of the first significant demonstrations of the modern era was held
   in the square on 19 September 1961 by the Committee of 100, which
   included the philosopher Bertrand Russell. The protesters rallied for
   peace and against war and nuclear weapons.

   Throughout the 1980s, a continuous anti-apartheid protest was held
   outside of South Africa House. More recently, the square has hosted the
   Poll Tax Riots ( 1990) and anti-war demonstrations opposing the
   Afghanistan war and the Iraq war.

   The Square was also scene to a large vigil held shortly after the
   terrorist bombings in London on Thursday 7 July 2005.

Sports events

   In recent years Trafalgar Square has become the location to the climax
   for victory parades for the England national rugby union team in the
   2003 Rugby World Cup on the 9th December 2003 and on the 13th September
   2005 was also the climax of the victory parade for the England national
   cricket team victory against the Australia national cricket team in The
   Ashes.

   In 6 July 2005 Trafalgar Square was a gathering place for many London
   citizens to hear the announcement that they will host the 2012 Summer
   Olympics.

VE Day celebrations

   Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was May 8, 1945, the date
   when the Allies during the Second World War formally celebrated the
   defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

   Trafalgar Square was filled with British subjects wanting to hear the
   formal announcement by Sir Winston Churchill that the war was over: it
   was packed to bursting point. Trafalgar Square was used as a place of
   celebration and people from all over the country came there. A diary
   extract told how a father took his three children and wife to Trafalgar
   Square, and they all held on to a piece of washing line so they didn't
   get lost in the massive crowd.

   On Sunday 8 May 2005 the BBC held a concert to celebrate the 60th
   anniversary of VE Day which was hosted by Eamonn Holmes and Natasha
   Kaplinsky. Many people who lived during the war attended, and many of
   the much younger generation, but most importantly many old veterans
   came and told the stories of their hardships during the six years of
   war.

New Year events

   For many years, revellers celebrating the start of a New Year have
   gathered on the square, despite a lack of civic celebrations being
   arranged for them. The lack of official events in the square was partly
   because the authorities were concerned that actively encouraging more
   partygoers would cause overcrowding.

   Hogmany at Edinburgh, Scotland has instead been the focus for British
   New Year celebrations, although in recent years, a firework display
   from the London Eye and the banks of the Thames, near the square, has
   given spectators a fitting start to the New Year.

Access

   Nearest London Underground stations:
     * Charing Cross ( Northern, Bakerloo lines) — has an exit in the
       square
     * Embankment ( District, Circle lines)
     * Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly lines)

Other Trafalgar Squares

   National Heroes Square in Bridgetown, Barbados was originally named
   Trafalgar Square in 1813, before the better known British throughfare,
   with another statute of Admiral Horatio Nelson featured. The name
   change occurred on April 28, 1999.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar_Square"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
