51°30′22.8″N0°7′54.5″W / 51.506333°N 0.131806°W | |
Location | London, England |
---|---|
Designer | Benjamin Dean Wyatt |
Type | Monument |
Height | 137 ft 9 in |
Weight | 16,840 pounds |
Opening date | 10 April 1834 |
Dedicated to | Prince Frederick, Duke of York |
The Duke of York Column is a monument in London, England, to Prince Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of King George III. The designer was Benjamin Dean Wyatt. It is sited where a purposefully wide endpoint of Regent Street, known as Waterloo Place and Gardens, meets The Mall, between the two terraces of Carlton House Terrace and their tree-lined squares. The three very wide flights of steps down to The Mall adjoining are known as the Duke of York Steps. The column was completed in December 1832, and the statue of the Duke of York, by Sir Richard Westmacott, was raised on 10 April 1834. [1]
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, was the commander-in-chief of the British Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and led the reform of the army into a capable modernised force. The Duke is remembered in the children's nursery rhyme "The Grand Old Duke of York". When he died in 1827, the entire British Army, by general consensus following a proposal of the senior officers, forwent one day's wages to pay for a monument to the Duke.
When the sum of subscriptions for a monument to the Duke reached £21,000 (equivalent to £2,296,388in 2023), the committee overseeing the project asked a number of architects to submit proposals, and in December 1830 they chose a design by Benjamin Dean Wyatt. The mason Nowell of Pimlico was contracted to build the column for a sum of £15,760. Excavations for the concrete foundations began on 27 April 1831. The ground was excavated to a layer of natural soil, around 22 ft 0 in (6.71 m) below street level. A layer of York stone slabs at a depth of around 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m) was used to consolidate the concrete, and another was placed at the top of the foundations, as a base for the masonry. The foundations were completed on 25 June 1831, and construction of the stonework began three weeks later. [2]
On 7 May 1850, Henri Joseph Stephan, a horn player in Benjamin Lumley's orchestra at Her Majesty's Theatre, committed suicide by falling from the public gallery at the top of the column. [3]
The column is of the Tuscan order. It is built of granite from Aberdeenshire; a light grey variety was used for the pedestal, a bluer grey type for the base of the shaft, [2] and 'red' Peterhead granite (pink/grey) for the shaft of the column. There is an iron railing around the abacus of the capital. Above the column a circular plinth, then a bronze statue of the Duke dressed in the robes of the Knights of the Garter, by Sir Richard Westmacott. [4] [5] The statue is slightly more than twice life-size, at 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) tall [6] and weighs 16,840 pounds (7,640 kg). It was raised into position on 8 April 1834. [4]
The total height of the monument is 137 ft 9 in (41.99 m). [6] The statue faces south-southeast; from its base, there are views of The Mall and St. James's Park. [7] The great height of the column caused contemporary wits to joke that the Duke was trying to escape his creditors, for the Duke died £2 million in debt. [7] [ clarification needed ]
Within the column a spiral staircase of 168 steps, lit by narrow apertures, [4] to the viewing platform. Given the small, fragile platform and the previous high demand for access, this column has been closed to the public for many decades. [7]
The column is set at the top of a monumental flight of steps forming a break in Carlton House Terrace, The ensemble was designed by architect John Nash as an emphatic southern termination of his Via Triumphalis from Regent's Park to Westminster, envisaged and mostly realised 1815–1820. The Column, Steps and Terrace occupy the site of the Prince Regent's spectacular but short-lived Carlton House. The houses in the Terrace were popular with the gentry and wealthy, later joined by politicians such as William Ewart Gladstone. Both Column and Terrace are Grade I-listed, the houses in the terrace being described as 'palatial' by Historic England. [8]
Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar over the combined French and Spanish navies, during which he was killed by a French sniper. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian order built from Dartmoor granite. The statue of Nelson was carved from Craigleith sandstone by sculptor Edward Hodges Baily. The four bronze lions around its base, designed by Sir Edwin Landseer, were added in 1867.
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. He was a descendant of the House of Grey and the namesake of Earl Grey tea. Grey was a long-time leader of multiple reform movements. During his time as prime minister, his government brought about two notable reforms. The Reform Act 1832 enacted parliamentary reform, greatly increasing the electorate of the House of Commons.
Decimus Burton was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and Regency styles. He was a founding fellow and vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and from 1840 architect to the Royal Botanic Society, and an early member of the Athenaeum Club, London, whose clubhouse he designed and which the company of his father, James Burton, the pre-eminent Georgian London property developer, built.
St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. The area was once part of the northwestern gardens and parks of St. James's Palace. During the Restoration in the 17th century, the area was developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the development of their gentlemen's clubs. Once part of the parish of St Martin in the Fields, much of it formed the parish of St James from 1685 to 1922. Since the Second World War the area has transitioned from residential to commercial use.
Carlton House, sometimes Carlton Palace, was a mansion in Westminster, best known as the town residence of King George IV, particularly during the regency era and his time as prince regent. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St James's Park in the St James's district of London. The location of the house, now replaced by Carlton House Terrace, was a main reason for the creation of John Nash's ceremonial route from St James's to Regent's Park via Regent Street, Portland Place and Park Square: Lower Regent Street and Waterloo Place were originally laid out to form the approach to its front entrance.
The Nelson Monument is a monument to Admiral Horatio Nelson, in Exchange Flags, Liverpool, England. It was designed by Matthew Cotes Wyatt and sculpted by Richard Westmacott. It stands to the north of the Town Hall and was unveiled in 1813.
Sir Richard Westmacott was a British sculptor.
Carlton House Terrace is a street in the St James's district of the City of Westminster in London. Its principal architectural feature is a pair of terraces, the Western and Eastern terraces, of white stucco-faced houses on the south side of the street, which overlook The Mall and St. James's Park. These terraces were built on Crown land between 1827 and 1832 to overall designs by John Nash, but with detailed input by other architects including Decimus Burton. Construction was overseen by James Pennethorne. Both terrace blocks are Grade I listed buildings. A separate but linked cul-de-sac at the terrace's western end is named Carlton Gardens and has a few additional townhomes.
The Waterloo Vase is a 15-foot (4.6 m) stone urn, situated in the garden of Buckingham Palace in central London. Fashioned from a single piece of Carrara marble, it was initially presented to Napoleon I, who intended to have it carved in celebration of anticipated future military victories. After the Emperor’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, the uncarved vase was given to the Prince Regent, later George IV. The Prince commissioned the sculptor, Richard Westmacott to decorate the vase with reliefs celebrating the victory at Waterloo. The original plan to place the vase in the Waterloo Gallery at Windsor Castle proved unrealisable, the weight of the vase being greater than the gallery’s floors could bear. It was therefore given to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Considering the vase surplus to its requirements, the gallery placed it first in Hyde Park, London and then into storage at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1903, it was offered by the museum to the new king, Edward VII, who installed it as a garden ornament in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, where it remains. The vase is a Grade I listed structure.
Wellington's Column, or the Waterloo Memorial, is a monument to the Duke of Wellington standing on the corner of William Brown Street and Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
Grey's Monument is a Grade I-listed monument in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It was built in 1838 in recognition of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. In particular, it celebrates the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832, one of Grey's most important legislative achievements. The act reorganised the system of parliamentary constituencies and increased the number of those eligible to vote.
Coade stone or Lithodipyra or Lithodipra is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical statues, architectural decorations and garden ornaments of the highest quality that remain virtually weatherproof today.
The architecture of Aberdeen, Scotland, is known for the use of granite as the principal construction material. The stone, which has been quarried in and around the city, has given Aberdeen the epithet The Granite City, or more romantically, and less commonly used, the Silver City, after the mica in the stone which sparkles in the sun.
The Wellington Monument is a statue representing Achilles erected as a memorial to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, and his victories in the Peninsular War and the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars. It is sited at the south-western end of Park Lane in London, and was inaugurated on 18 June 1822. Its total height, including the sculpture, base and the mound on which it stands, is 36 ft.
An equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, stands on the north side of Hyde Park Corner, London. The open space in which it stands, now the centre of a large roundabout, was once called Wellington Place.
The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington is an outdoor sculpture of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, a British soldier and statesman, located at the Royal Exchange in London. It overlooks Bank junction in the historic City of London. The sculptor was Francis Leggatt Chantrey. The statue commemorates Wellington's assistance to the City of London in ensuring that a bill was passed to allow the rebuilding of London Bridge.
The Cavalry of the Empire Memorial, also known as the Cavalry Memorial, is a war memorial in Hyde Park, London. It commemorates the service of cavalry regiments in the First and Second World Wars. It became a Grade II listed building in 1987, and was promoted to Grade II* in November 2014.
The statue of Charles James Fox stands at the north end of Bloomsbury Square in the London borough of Camden. Erected in 1816, the sculptor was Richard Westmacott. It commemorates the Whig politician who died in 1806. Fox is shown in the garb of a Roman senator. The statue is a Grade II* listed structure.
Waterloo Place is a short but broad street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, London. It forms a plaza-like space and is a southern extension of Lower Regent Street. Towards the northern end it is crossed by Pall Mall and at the southern end, by Carlton House Terrace, where it ends at the Duke of York Steps which lead down to The Mall. Located on the Place are several 19th and 20th century monuments to royalty, explorers and military people.
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