page_title: Wellington Arch
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wellington Arch / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The originally intended design for the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner by Decimus Burton, built from 1826–30 and so still under construction when the print was published. The engraving shows the full set of sculptures first intended to decorate the arch, including reliefs on the arch itself and statues of warriors above and between the columns. To save costs these were all ultimately omitted, to compensate for the overspending incurred in the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace being undertaken at the same time. A notable loss was the statue of the quadriga intended to top the monument, a Roman four-horse chariot similar to the statues on the top of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (1793) or the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris (1806-08). Instead the space was eventually taken by a three times lifesize bronze equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, which stood there from 1846 to 1882. The present bronze statue by Adrian Jones of the Angel of Peace descending onto a quadriga was added in 1912. The arch was originally placed facing north-north-east directly opposite Burton's Ionic Screen entrance to Hyde Park (1824–25), as the entrance to a grand processional route to Buckingham Palace along Constitution Hill (the end of which was re-aligned to run adjacent to Grosvenor Place to approach the arch squarely). A road-widening scheme at Hyde Park Corner in 1882–83 required the arch to be moved east, losing its relationship to the Hyde Park screen, although it still stood at the head of Constitution Hill, with which it was now placed on axis, facing westwards. The road junction was again remodelled in 1961–62 with the opening of the Park Lane dual carriageway, creating the present large roundabout and Hyde Park Corner underpass, so that the arch now sits in the middle of a large traffic island, although the route through it to Constitution Hill is still sometimes used for ceremonial purposes.
context_page_description: Wellington Arch, also known as Constitution Arch or as the Green Park Arch, is a Grade I-listed triumphal arch by Decimus Burton that forms a centrepiece of Hyde Park Corner in central London, between corners of Hyde Park and Green Park; it stands on a large traffic island with crossings for pedestrian access. From its construction in 1826 until 1830 the arch stood in a different location nearby; it was moved to its current site in 1882–1883. It originally supported a colossal equestrian statue of the 1st Duke of Wellington by the sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt, as a result of which it has acquired the name "the Wellington Arch" in the vernacular. A bronze quadriga by Adrian Jones has surmounted it since 1912.
context_section_description: Both the Wellington Arch and Marble Arch (originally sited in front of Buckingham Palace) were planned in 1825 by George IV to commemorate Britain's victories in the Napoleonic Wars. During the second half of the 1820s, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests and the King resolved that Hyde Park, and the area around it, should be renovated to match the splendour of rival European capital cities, and that the essence of the new arrangement would be a triumphal approach to the recently completed Buckingham Palace. The committee of the project, led by the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and advised by Charles Arbuthnot, President of the Board of Commissioners of Woods and Forests, selected Decimus Burton as the project's architect. In 1828, when giving evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee on the Government's spending on public works, Arbuthnot explained that he had nominated Burton "having seen in the Regent's Park, and elsewhere, works which pleased my eye, from their architectural beauty and correctness". Burton intended to create an urban space dedicated to the celebration of the House of Hanover, national pride, and the nation's heroes.
  The renovation of Hyde Park, Green Park, and St James's Park began in 1825, with the demarcation of new drives and pathways, subsequent to which Burton designed new lodges and gates, viz. Cumberland Gate, Stanhope Gate, Grosvenor Gate, the Hyde Park Gate/Screen at Hyde Park Corner, and, later, the Prince of Wales's Gate, Knightsbridge, in the classical style. There were no authoritative precedents for such buildings, which required windows and chimney stacks, in the classical style, and, in the words of Guy Williams, "Burton's reticent treatment of the supernumerary features" and of the cast iron gates and railings was "greatly admired". 
  At Hyde Park Corner, the King required "some great ceremonial outwork that would be worthy of the new palace that lay to its rear", and accepted Burton's consequent proposal for a sequence comprising a gateway and a classical screen, and a triumphal arch, which would enable those approaching Buckingham Palace from the north to ride or drive first through the screen and then through the arch, before turning left to descend Constitution Hill and enter the forecourt of Buckingham Palace through Nash's Marble Arch. The screen became the neoclassical Hyde Park Gate/Screen at Hyde Park Corner, which delighted the King and his Committee, and which the architectural historian Guy Williams describes as "one of the most pleasing architectural works that have survived from the neo-classical age". The triumphal arch became the Wellington Arch at Constitution Hill into Green Park, London, which has been described as "one of London's best loved landmarks". Burton's original design for the triumphal arch, which was modelled on the Arch of Titus at Rome, on which the central and side blocks of the Screen had been modelled, was more technically perfect, and coherent with the Screen, than that of the arch that was subsequently built: this original design, however, was rejected by the Committee – who had envisaged a design based on the Arch of Constantine, on which Nash's Marble Arch had been modelled – because it was not sufficiently ostentatious. Burton created a new design, "to pander to the majestic ego", which was much larger and modelled on a fragment found in the Roman Forum, which was accepted on 14 January 1826, and subsequently built as the present Wellington Arch.
  
  The arch has a single opening, and uses the Corinthian order. Much of the intended exterior ornamentation was omitted as a cost-saving exercise necessitated by the King's overspending on the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace, which was underway at the same time. A contemporary account, written in anticipation of its completion to its original plan, describes what was intended:
  The entabulature is loft and elegant with a richly sculptured frieze, and a row of boldly projecting lions' heads on the cymatium, marking the centres of columns and other sub-divisions of the order. Above the entablatu
caption: 1827 engraving showing the full ornamentation originally intended for the arch, including reliefs and statues. The engraving, from Shepherd's Metropolitan Improvements, was published while the arch was still under construction.
exif: {"Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "44", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6012"}