Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in London built to commemorate the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. The sandstone statue of Nelson is by E. H. Baily and the four bronze lions on the base, added in 1867, were sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer. The column itself is built of granite from Dartmoor.

The column has been climbed several times, both for entertainment and as a publicity stunt. It was refurbished in 2006 at a cost of £420,000, during which it was surveyed and found to be 4.4 metres shorter than previously supposed.

Construction and history

The column was built between 1840 and 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was designed by architect William Railton in 1838, and built by the firm Peto & Grissell.^[1] Railton's original 1:22-scale stone model is exhibited at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. The entire monument was built at a cost of £47,500, or £3.5 million in 2004 terms (roughly $6.1 million US).

The 5.5 m (18 ft) sandstone statue at the top was sculpted by E. H. Baily, a member of the Royal Academy,^[1] who also sculpted Earl Grey's statue on top of Grey's Monument in Newcastle;^[2] a small bronze plaque crediting him is at the base of the statue. The statue faces south looking towards the Admiralty and Portsmouth where Nelson's & the Royal Navy Flagship HMS Victory is docked, with the Mall on his right flank, where Nelson's ships are represented on the top of each flagpole.^{[citation needed]}

The statue stands on top of a 46 m (151 ft) column built of granite from the Foggintor quarries on Dartmoor.^[3] The top of the Corinthian column (based on one from the Temple of Mars Ultor in Rome) is decorated with bronze acanthus leaves cast from British cannon. The square pedestal is decorated with four bronze panels, cast from captured French guns, depicting Nelson's four great victories. These panels were undertaken by the sculptors Musgrave Watson, John Ternouth, William F Woodington, and John Edward Carew. Part of the interior base was made from the 29 cannon recovered from HMS Royal George, HMS Victory's sister ship. ^[4] The four lions, by Sir Edwin Landseer, at the column's base were added after much delay in 1867.^[5]

In 1925 a Scottish confidence trickster, Arthur Furguson, "sold" the landmark to an unknowing American (he also "sold" Big Ben and Buckingham Palace). The column also had some symbolic importance to Adolf Hitler. If Hitler's plan to invade Britain, Operation Sealion, had been successful, he planned to move it to Berlin.^[6]

Climbs

John Noakes of the BBC TV children's programme Blue Peter climbed the column in the late 1970s. TV presenter and entertainer Gary Wilmot climbed the column in 1989 for LWT's 'The Six O' Clock Show' to recreate the 'topping out' ceremony when construction of the column was first completed. Dressed in Victorian attire and sporting a boater hat, Wilmott enjoyed tea and sandwiches at the top of the column before climbing down.

The column has also been climbed on several occasions as a publicity stunt to draw attention to a social or political cause. Ed Drummond made the first such climb in 1979 for the Anti-Apartheid Movement, making use of the lightning conductor on route. On 13 April 1995 Simon Nadin free-climbed Nelson's Column with Noel Craine, Jerry Moffat and Johnny Dawes following on top rope, and graded the climb as "E6 6b/5a". The protest this time was on behalf of Survival International to publicise the plight of Canada's Inuit people. In May 2003 BASE jumper and stuntman Gary Connery parachuted from the top of the column to draw attention to the Chinese policies in Tibet.

Refurbishment

The column was refurbished in 2006, during which time it was scaffolded from top to bottom for access. Steam cleaning was used together with gentle abrasives to minimise any harmful impact on the brass and stonework.^[7] The work was performed by David Ball Restoration Ltd. of South London.^[7] The £420,000 cost was covered by Zurich Financial Services, which advertised on the scaffolding for the duration of the work. Before restoration began, laser surveys were taken during which it was found that the column was significantly shorter than the usually quoted 56 m (185 ft). In fact, it measures 51.6 m (169  5 in) from the bottom of the first step on the pedestal to the tip of the admiral's hat.^[8][9]

Other monuments to Nelson

The first civic monument to be erected in Nelson's honour was a 44-metre high obelisk on Glasgow Green in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1806. Also in Scotland, Nelson's Monument is on top of Calton Hill, Edinburgh and there is also a Nelson's Tower in Forres, Moray. In Dublin, Ireland, Nelson's Pillar was erected in 1808 but was destroyed by the IRA in 1966, and in the Bull Ring, Birmingham, England, there is a Grade II* listed bronze statue of Nelson by Richard Westmacott, dating from 1809. In Portsmouth, Nelson's Needle, on top of Portsdown Hill, was paid for by the company of HMS Victory after arriving back in Portsmouth. There is a column topped with a decorative urn in the Castle Green, Hereford – a statue was planned in place of the urn, but insufficient money was raised.^[10] The Britannia Monument, Great Yarmouth, England (1819) is a 144 feet high doric column design.

Elsewhere in the world, Nelson's Column in Montreal was erected by the merchants of that Canadian city in 1809, and there is also a Mount Nelson, near Invermere, British Columbia. A much shorter statue of Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square, Bridgetown, Barbados is older than its counterpart in London.^[11][12][13]

Gallery

References

External links

• Lofty Admiral Nelson Gets Face-Lift - From IOL South Africa/Agence France-Presse, 7 May 2006
• Nelson's broken arm to be X-rayed - From BBC News, 26 April 2006
• Web cam of Trafalgar Square including Nelson's Column
• John Timbs, Curiosities of London, 1867
• Entry in Victorian London - Buildings, Monuments and Museums

Coordinates: 51°30′27.8″N 0°07′40.7″W / 51.507722°N 0.127972°W / 51.507722; -0.127972

Nelson's Column is a national monument of the United Kingdom based in Trafalgar Square, London, England. The column was built between 1840 and 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.