Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, City of London explained

Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington
Italic Title:no
Image Upright:.9
Artist:Francis Leggatt Chantrey
Medium:Bronze
Subject:Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Metric Unit:cm
Imperial Unit:in
City:London
Mapframe:yes
Mapframe-Zoom:13

The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington is an outdoor sculpture of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, a British soldier and statesman, located at the Royal Exchange in London.[1] It overlooks Bank junction in the historic City of London. The sculptor was Francis Leggatt Chantrey.[2] The statue commemorates Wellington's assistance to the City of London in ensuring that a bill was passed to allow the rebuilding of London Bridge.[3]

The base of the statue is a ventilation shaft for Bank and Monument stations on the London Underground. It was converted during expansion of Bank station in 1994.[4]

History

While sitting for a later portrait by Charles Robert Leslie, Wellington recalled that Chantrey had told him he had a square head.[5] After Chantrey's sudden death his studio assistant Henry Weekes completed the sculpture.[6] [1]

Wellington attended the unveiling of his statue on 18 June 1844.[2] [7] The date was chosen to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo, where Wellington led an allied army to victory against Napoleon, in 1815.[8] Frederick Augustus II, King of Saxony, who was in London visiting Queen Victoria, also attended the unveiling.[8]

Description

The equestrian statue was erected to show the City's gratitude for Wellington's help in assisting the passage of the London Bridge Approaches Act 1827. This Act led to the creation of King William Street.

"Wellington" is inscribed on each side of the plinth; on its ends is the inscription "Erected June 18, 1844". A brass plaque at the plinth's base reads:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Statue: Duke of Wellington statue – EC2. LondonRemembers.com. 22 September 2014.
  2. Book: Margaret Baker. Discovering London Statues and Monuments. 2002. Osprey Publishing. 978-0-7478-0495-6. 151.
  3. Web site: Open air sculpture and monuments in the City of London . 3 February 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120831010011/http://barryoneoff.co.uk/html/statues2.html . 31 August 2012 . dead .
  4. Book: Lavers . Ovens . Prizeman . Lucy . Judy . Suzanna . Inventive Vents: A Gazetteer of London's Ventilation Shafts . Our Hut . 2021 . 978-1-527298-17-0.
  5. Book: George Robert Gleig. The life of Arthur, Duke of Wellington. 1865. Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. 442.
  6. Stevens T. 'Weekes, Henry (1807–1877)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) . 2004 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/28969 . 2014-09-22.
  7. Book: John Timbs. Wellingtoniana: anecdotes, maxims, and characteristics, of the duke of Wellington, selected by J. Timbs. 1852. 66.
  8. Book: Effingham Wilson. Wilson's Description of the New Royal Exchange, Including an Historical Notice of the Former Edifices: And a Brief Memoir of Sir Thomas Gresham, Knt., Founder of the Original Burse in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth .... 1844. E. Wilson. 114–116.