Nelson's Column

NELSON'S COLUMN

Nelson’s Column is positioned in the centre of London’s Trafalgar Square. The statue of Horatio Nelson stands on top of a Corinthian column, the base of which is surrounded by four alert lions, guarding this statue of a man widely considered to be one of the greatest sailors who ever lived. Trafalgar Square was laid out to commemorate the decisive victory over the combined fleets of the French and the Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar off the South coast of Spain in 1805 with Nelson’s Column as the centrepiece.

The granite column itself is forty-six metres high and was designed by William Railton. It was built between 1840 and 1843, weighs 2500 metric tonnes and with a ninety-five per cent quartz content it has weathered extremely well. Nelson alone weighs sixteen tonnes. During restoration in 2006 the monument was discovered to be shorter than had previously been thought, it is exactly fifty metres from the base to the tip of the admiral’s hat. The restoration finally repaired Nelson’s arm, which had been damaged by lightning in 1896.  

The statue was carved from sandstone by the Royal Academician E.H. Baily. Nelson is depicted three times larger than he was in real life. Nelson is shown looking towards The Admiralty buildings on Whitehall and beyond to distant Portsmouth where the Royal Navy flagship HMS Victory is docked. Nelson died aboard the vessel, which was painstakingly restored by Arthur Bugler and as a consequence it is open for the public to visit.

Facing out to the four compass points, the quartet of bas-reliefs at the base of the column were cast from the captured French cannon at The Battle Of Trafalgar. They depict the battle of Cape St Vincent, The Battle of Nice, the bombardment of Copenhagen and the death of Nelson. The four lions are by Sir Edwin Landseer and they were added after much delay in 1867.

Adolf Hitler boasted in 1940 that after he had successfully invaded England, he would transfer Nelson’s Column from Trafalgar Square to Berlin as an impressive way of underlining German victory as it represented, ‘A symbol of British naval might and world dominion.’

During his lifetime Admiral Lord Nelson lost one of his eyes and one of his arms. The statue shows the sailor as having one arm and two eyes. However, Nelson lost his eye before he lost his arm, so the sculptor should have carved the statue with either two eyes and two arms, one eye and two arms, one eye and one arm, but never as Nelson is actually shown, with two eyes and one arm.

Every year a Christmas tree is positioned to stand alongside the column in Trafalgar Square. A majestic Norwegian Spruce, around seventy feet tall, it is an annual gift from the Norwegians, to mark the support from the British people during the Second World War. For many Londoners the ceremony marks the start of Christmas. In 1996, when the fiftieth tree was presented, Queen Sonja of Norway said, ‘The star on the top is a reminder of what Britain did for us in a dark and difficult period of our history.’ The tree is traditionally one foot longer each year.

This year marks the sixty-third tree to come from the City Of Oslo and it is always decorated in traditional Norwegian style. The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree lighting up ceremony took place on Thursday 3rd December 2009. The tree will remain at Trafalgar Square until Tuesday 5th January 2010.

Carol singing takes place daily from 5pm - 9pm, starting on Monday 7th December and continuing until Sunday 20th December 2009. The carol services are free to attend.

Nelson’s Column is near to Charing Cross and Leicester Square Underground stations. Many bus routes pass through Trafalgar Square.

Where to view video clips of Nelson's Column  and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Nelson's Column’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.