Episode Description
Trafalgar Square has long been regarded as the centre of London. It wasn’t always. John describes its medieval configuration when it was still countryside – hence the name of James Gibbs’s church St Martin in the Fields. This was where Richard II kept his hawks in the royal mews. A square was proposed by the Prince Regent’s architect John Nash but not in the form we have it today. The proximity of a barracks kept public order.
What about the monument that dominates Trafalgar Square today, Nelson’s column? Clive has the story of its slow journey towards completion, and the disappointments suffered by its architect William Railton. Since then, the square has acquired fountains designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with Art Deco sculpture – replacing ones by Sir Charles Barry that were fed from an artesian well. Within living memory, Trafalgar Square used to be a traffic island, cut off from the National Gallery by a busy road. Now it can justifiably be called the beating heart of the metropolis.