Photo Essay: Marble Arch

I was a bit early for my meeting at Green Park, so I decided to nip over to Marble Arch and take a closer look around. It was bitterly cold, but the sun was slowly coming in from Hyde Park. The arch is not very imposing when observed from the other side of the street, mind you. Crossroads had geographical significance in ancient history. The history of this site goes way back to the early Roman times, where this place was the cross roads of two great Roman roads, one to Colchester in the West and St. Albans to the North. Plus you have to realise that the land where it stands was a place for public hanging for centuries called as Tyburn - blood soaked land from an estimated 50,000 executions from 1300 to 1783AD. Strange why so many executions happened on crossroads, eh? Better publicity I guess.

Overshadowed by the buildings behind it, it looks fairly ordinary. And I am not surprised, this wasn't supposed to be the final original location. It was supposed to form the major entry into Buckingham Palace. John Nash, the designer and architect, made this in 1827, to commemorate the Napoleonic Wars victory at Trafalgar and Waterloo. Nash based his design on the Arch of Constantine in Rome. A very poor copy, I have to admit, but as I understand, he was planning to knock the socks off Constantine’s Arch, but he ran out of money. The monument has many flag posts around it specially the flags of the Commonwealth nations. who have contributed soldiers at various times to the assorted British Wars in the past 3 centuries. But not very impressive, when you compare it to Nelson’s Column or the other Napoleonic War memorials dotted around the country. Not impressive at all.

Anyway, the Arch was moved as Buckingham Palace was extended and then placed here, opposite of the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park. According to British law, this is the place for free speech, where you can say what you want - anything ay all - at the Speaker’s Corner. Can you see the area in the centre? That’s the Speaker’s Corner. It's a very nice place in the summer. Free Speech requires good temperatures, you really cannot speak that much when your jaws are chattering away with cold. Not that you will have anybody to listen to you.

On closer inspection, it doesn't change much either. The structure is made out of white Carrara marble. The same material which has been used by Michelangelo to carve his David. The Pantheon and Trajan’s Column in Rome were also carved out of this marble. Its pretty rich (although the building has been through a relatively recent £75,000 restoration and cleaning. As you can appreciate, the monument is surrounded with heavy traffic and all those horrible exhaust fumes, not to forget the droppings of the flying rat, didn't do this monument any good.


This sculpture represents a winged Peace (on the left) holding a long flower and Plenty (on the right) holding a sheaf of food grains in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other hand. 

A Roman/Greek Naval (See the link with Trafalgar? Some say this is connected to Nelson) warrior/officer on the left and a figure of Justice on the right, holding a rolled up bunch of presumably legal documents.

An allegorical group standing for Peace and Plenty. It has 2 faintly chubby cherubs (one holding roses and apples) gambolling around this lady who is holding a branch in her hand, and is standing on top of a whole bunch of armour pieces, battle axes, helmets, spears.

These 3 figures stand for England, Scotland and Ireland. One lady holds a harp (Ireland), another holds a shield behind her (Scotland) and then the lady in the middle has a pretty imposing head dress (England).


The two gates on the sides are meant for hoi polloi and peasants.


But the centre gate is meant only for royalty and if you wanted to break the law, you can walk through it to show your rebellion.


The gates are substantial bits, made out of bronze. The gates show the Lion of England, the Cypher of George IV, and the figure of St. George and the dragon. Its surrounded by chrysanthemums (I think…) around the sides.


The central keystone on the left and right arches has this bearded fellow carved on the end. And the way it has been discoloured sort of shows that he has a bad runny nose. He does look very miserable, doesnt he? Well, so would I be if my head was hung up on the keystone for centuries breathing in damn traffic fumes.

There are pretty imposing lanterns on top.

 
Lovely long columns of marble. See the door on the right hand side photo? It's the entrance to 3 rooms on top of the arch. Of all the things, these 3 rooms were used as police stations!.

The windows on the top were used by the policemen to peek out over the landscape..


It was frightfully cold, but that didn't stop these pigeons from sunbathing! Can you see how they are all fluffed up and sitting in a line?



They were also all over the benches. Looked very cute, but damned the feathered rats.

But what am I blaming the pigeons for? This lady was sitting on a bench, in front of a whole pile of ice and snow and slush. She was sitting there on her own, with her bag reading for at least 20 minutes in this freezing cold. She must be MAD! You get all kinds..

Full slide show here.