Plaque

Quadriga conservation 2000

Quadriga conservation 2000

Erection date: 2000

Inscription

This sculpture was conserved by Rupert Harris Metalwork Conservation on behalf of English Heritage in the year 2000.
Rupert Harris, Martin Rodda, Andy Coupe, Jasper Lyon, Matthew Macdonald, Petrina Stroud, Tove Hirth, Jane Knight, Melvyn Rodda, Wil Roberts.

This plaque is inside the chariot of the Quadriga. We have Matt Brown of Londonist to thank for this photo. He was up there, hanging on we hope, to report on the completion of the 2016 repairs and had the presence of mind to snap this for us. His visit produced some wonderful close-up pictures of the angel of peace in her chariot of war.

Matt would be the first to agree that, for content, this is not the most interesting plaque but for location it takes some beating.

Site: Wellington Arch (2 memorials)

SW1, Hyde Park Corner

A turnpike at this location, at the road into London passing between the two large parks, Hyde Park and Green Park, had led to the idea that this was the entrance to London. See the 'Hyde Park Gate' turnpike on a map. In 1825 under George IV and to celebrate our successes in the Napoleonic Wars it was decided to create a grand entrance to London here. This was composed of two parts: to the north, the joined three arches, known as the Hyde Park Screen, still there today and acting as an entrance to Hyde Park; and immediately facing it, on the south side of Piccadilly, this arch sometimes known as the Green Park Arch, or the Constitution Arch, acting as an outer entrance to Buckingham Palace. Remember: what is now a huge traffic roundabout was still part of Green Park and Buckingham Palace Gardens.

As traffic increased this grand entrance, between the Screen and the Arch, became a bottleneck and it was decided to create a road cutting the corner from Piccadilly to Grosvenor Place and to move the Arch to its present position, all of which was done in 1883-5.

Designed by Decimus Burton as a triumphal arch, richly ornamented and topped with a gilded quadriga, it outgrew its budget and so was completed without all the ornamentation and without the quadriga. In 1838 a committee, looking for somewhere to erect a memorial to Wellington (though he was still very much alive), chose the top of this arch, it being so close to Apsley House, the great man’s London home. A huge equestrian statue was duly erected in 1846 on top of the arch and was greeted with widespread ridicule. Spitalfields Life have a c.1880 photo and it is ridiculous. There was much public discussion, and humour: people generally agreed with Burton that the Archduke (for so it was nicknamed) was vastly out of scale with the arch. When the statue’s removal was proposed Wellington objected, so there it stayed. He died in 1852 but the statue remained until the Arch was moved in the 1880s. The statue was taken down and re-erected on a new pedestal near the Garrison Church at Aldershot, where it remains. And a new more moderately-sized statue of Wellington was commissioned for Hyde Park corner, and erected.

Most of this information is taken from the English Heritage page, which also has some very good pictures.

At Road Record we learn that on 22 March 1926 "The first one-way traffic system in London came into operation at Hyde Park Corner, at the time the world’s busiest road junction."

The giant statue appears, briefly, in the 1968 film 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. Part of it hoves into view immediately outside a window in which some of the characters are conversing. Our memory is dim, and we may even have the wrong film (since the events in the film probably take place during the time that the statue was stationary atop the arch) but we think not. Another view of the statue in 1866 can be seen at Reformers Tree - here, given the distance, you really get a feel for how big it was.

2014: Ian Visits brings the story right up to date with a good investigative piece where we learn that part of this monument is a ventilation shaft for the road tunnel below and has been since 1962. He has also found some British Pathe footage of the building works, starting at about 1:50.

The central arch of the Hyde Park Screen has a classical, Elgin-marble-like frieze which is well covered by Ornamental Passions.

2022: The Past has a very interesting article about the history of triumphal arches (paywall but a free trial, at the time of writing).

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Quadriga conservation 2000

Subjects commemorated i

Rupert Harris Metalwork Conservation

In 2000 the team included: Rupert Harris, Martin Rodda, Andy Coupe, Jasper Ly...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Quadriga conservation 2000

Created by i

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Quadriga conservation 2000

Also at this site i

Wellington Arch - Quadriga

Wellington Arch - Quadriga

While still Prince of Wales, Edward VII saw a plaster version of this sculptu...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

King George VI Memorial Garden

King George VI Memorial Garden

N22, Wood Green High Road

Borough of Wood Green. King George VI Memorial Garden. This garden was provided by public subscription as a memorial to his late Majesty,...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Bobby Moore - Waverley Gardens

Bobby Moore - Waverley Gardens

IG 11, Waverley Gardens, 43

Bobby Moore, 1941 - 1993, captain of the world cup-winning England football team, lived here. English Heritage

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Caroline Chisholm

Caroline Chisholm

N1, Charlton Place, 32

In Chisholm's time this house was number 3 Charlton Crescent and was her headquarters in England.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Theodore Fontane

Theodore Fontane

NW1, St Augustines Road, 6

Unveiled by the German ambassador, Thomas Matussek.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Eadweard Muybridge - High Street Kingston

Eadweard Muybridge - High Street Kingston

KT1, High Street Kingston, 30

Childhood home of Eadweard Muybridge, pioneer photographer, 1830 -1904. Royal Kingston The Friends of Kingston Museum and Heritage Service

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators