Equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington | |
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Artist | Joseph Edgar Boehm |
Year | 1888 |
Medium | Bronze (sculpture) and granite (plinth) |
Location | Hyde Park Corner, London |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Wellington Monument |
Designated | 14 January 1970 |
Reference no. | 1231514 [1] |
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 statue portrays the Iron Duke on a campaign, mounted on his horse Copenhagen, with all hooves planted on the ground. It was executed in bronze by the sculptor Joseph Boehm and unveiled in 1888. The figures at the corners of the pedestal representative British soldiers, a Grenadier, a Scottish Highlander, an Irish Dragoon and a Welsh Fusilier. Wellington has a telescope in his right hand.
The statue faces Apsley House, which was Wellington's London home. [2] [3] This gives the unintended impression that the Duke's back is turned on the processional way that runs through the open space in which the statue stands. The bronze statue stands on a plinth of pink Peterhead granite from Stirlinghill quarry, near Boddam, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The grey dais forming the base is made of Aberdeen granite from the Rubislaw quarry, Aberdeen. [4] The bronze came from captured French cannons. On one side of the plinth is inscribed WELLINGTON and on the other 1769–1852 in raised bronze characters.
An earlier, 1846 equestrian statue of the Duke, by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, once surmounted the nearby Wellington Arch. It was considered to be too large for the arch and was removed in 1882–83. It is now located at Aldershot Camp, Hampshire. Boehm's statue was commissioned to compensate for the removal of Wyatt's. The current statue is not to be confused with the nearby Wellington Monument, the first monument to the Duke of Wellington, which stands 150 metres away in Hyde Park.
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 lost his life. 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.
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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.
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