Wellington Arch

About Wellington Arch

Triumphal arch in London

Wellington Arch is a neoclassical triumphal arch at the centre of Hyde Park Corner, the great road junction at the south-eastern corner of Hyde Park in central London, standing on a broad green traffic island reached by pedestrian crossings. Designed by Decimus Burton and built between 1826 and 1830 opposite his Ionic Screen at the park entrance, it formed part of a grand ceremonial route from Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace and commemorated victory in the Napoleonic Wars, but a spending freeze in 1828 stripped it of all its intended sculpture. The ceremonial way between Hyde Park and Constitution Hill still passes beneath it for official processions. In 1846, over Burton's vehement objections, a colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by Matthew Cotes Wyatt was hoisted on top, giving the arch its name, though the statue was widely disliked as far too big. When the arch was dismantled and rebuilt on its present site at the top of Constitution Hill in 1882–83 to widen Piccadilly, the statue was not replaced and was sent to Aldershot in 1885. In 1912 Adrian Jones's 'Peace Descending on the Quadriga of War' was placed on top; it remains the largest bronze sculpture in the United Kingdom and is dramatically lit at night. In the 1950s the arch served as London's smallest police station, and after a £1.5 million restoration English Heritage opened it to the public in 2001. Inside are exhibitions on the arch's history and on triumphal arches, and the upper balconies look down Constitution Hill to the gardens of Buckingham Palace and across central London.

Where:

London, United Kingdom