Marble Arch

About Marble Arch

Triumphal arch in London

Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch standing at the junction of Oxford Street, Edgware Road and Park Lane at the north-east corner of Hyde Park in London. John Nash designed it in 1827, inspired by the Arch of Constantine in Rome, as the state entrance to the cour d'honneur of Buckingham Palace, where it stood near the site of today's central projection of the palace containing the famous balcony. In the 1840s Queen Victoria, with a growing family and entourage, sought to expand the palace with a new front range that would take in the arch's site, so in 1851, on the initiative of the architect and planner Decimus Burton, a former pupil of Nash, the arch was moved to its present position. The arch gives its name to the surrounding area, particularly the southern stretch of Edgware Road famous for its Arab restaurants and cafes, and to the neighbouring Underground station; it is no longer part of the Royal Parks and is maintained by Westminster City Council. Wikivoyage remarks that it now stands "rather sadly" on a large traffic island, but the subways beneath the roads let you stop off at the arch on the way from Oxford Street to Hyde Park. Beside the arch lies Speakers' Corner in the nearest corner of Hyde Park, where orators mount their platforms on Sunday mornings in a tradition of free speech dating from the 19th century, and close by stood the historic Tyburn gallows.

Where:

London, United Kingdom