LONDON BRITISH HERITAGE WELLINGTON ARCH ROYAL ARTILLERY MEMORIAL WALKING TOUR 4K 2025

LONDON BRITISH HERITAGE WELLINGTON ARCH ROYAL ARTILLERY MEMORIAL WALKING TOUR 4K 2025

Join me for a little historic walking tour around London’s city monuments.

The Wellington Arch, one of London’s best-known landmarks, was built in 1825–7 and was originally intended as an outer entrance to Buckingham Palace. At first it stood facing the Hyde Park Screen, but it was moved to its present position in the 1880s. Its original design was never completed, and a controversial giant statue of the Duke of Wellington was erected on top of it in 1846. The quadriga sculpture that crowns the arch today was placed there in 1912.

Royal Artillery Memorial
This outstanding memorial on the western side of the traffic island at Hyde Park Corner dramatically depicts the horrors of modern warfare. Unveiled in October 1925, it commemorates the 49,076 fatalities suffered by the Royal Artillery in the First World War, in which artillery played an increasingly central role.

The monument’s crowning feature is a 9.2-inch howitzer – one of the main heavy weapons of the Western Front – depicted in Portland stone. Below it, a frieze depicts scenes of the gunners in action. Around the base stand four striking bronze figures of gunners: a corpse draped in an overcoat, a shell carrier, a lieutenant, and a driver with arms outstretched.

Machine Gun Memorial
Standing next to the Royal Artillery Memorial, the Machine Gun Corps Memorial, unveiled in 1925, is at first sight one of the most perplexing of British war memorials.

The Machine Gun Corps was formed in 1915 to improve the deployment of machine guns. 170,000 men served in its ranks. It was disbanded in 1922, so the memorial is a tribute to a lost unit as well as to the many thousands of fatalities it had suffered. Known by some as ‘the Suicide Club’, this corps was not for the faint-hearted.

New Zealand War Memorial
This memorial commemorates the enduring bonds between New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and our shared sacrifice during times of war.

The memorial is called Southern Stand and is made up of sixteen cross-shaped vertical bronze standards on stone bases. Illuminated at night by uplights in bases.

Sources:

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wellington-arch/history/

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/london-statues-and-monuments/london-wwi-memorials/

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wellington-arch/history/description/

https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/54758

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