Horse Guards Parade
Henry VIII's tiltyard, and the captured guns and memorials standing on it
Horse Guards Parade was Henry VIII's tiltyard, where jousting was staged for the palace at Whitehall, and it is still a ceremonial ground: Trooping the Colour and Beating Retreat are both held on it. Around its edges is one of the strangest collections of objects in central London, mostly guns taken from other people's armies.
A parade ground made of trophies
Three of the objects on this page are captured ordnance, and that is not a coincidence. Displaying an enemy's guns is one of the oldest forms of monument there is, and it was still being done in Britain into the nineteenth century. Two of the pieces here are considerably older than their plinths and were made for armies that no longer exist.
The Guards Memorial goes a step further: it was cast from captured German guns, so the metal itself is a trophy. Standing on the parade ground it faces, the whole space reads as a record of what was taken, not of what was lost.
What is on each side of it
The parade ground has St James's Park on its western side, and the gravel walk along that edge is the way most people arrive: the park gate opposite the Guards Memorial puts you on the tiltyard in under a minute from the lake. Horse Guards Road runs between the two, and the memorials described below all face it.
North of the parade, Pall Mall runs west from Trafalgar Square past the clubs to St James's Palace, and the ceremonial route between the palace and Whitehall crosses it. South and east, Whitehall ends at Parliament Square, whose statues are a separate collection of the same kind: eleven figures around a lawn, arranged so that almost none of them faces another.
Taken together the three make a walk of about twenty minutes: the park, the tiltyard, Whitehall and the square, with something worth stopping for on every stretch of it.
The entries
The Guards Memorial
Horse Guards Parade SW1 Nearest station: Charing Cross
Five bronze guardsmen in greatcoats, one from each of the Foot Guards regiments, cast from guns captured in the First World War and modelled on serving soldiers. Gilbert Ledward's figures stand at ease rather than in action, which was unusual for 1926 and is why it has aged better than most memorials of its decade.
The Cadiz Memorial
Horse Guards Parade SW1 Nearest station: Charing Cross
A French mortar taken at Salamanca, mounted on a cast-iron Chinese dragon, presented by Spain to mark the lifting of the siege of Cádiz in 1812. It is the single most peculiar object in Whitehall and it has been mocked in print more or less continuously since it arrived.
The Ottoman gun
Horse Guards Parade SW1 Nearest station: Charing Cross
A bronze 52-pounder cast in 1524, taken from the French at Alexandria in 1802, and signed by its maker: Murad son of Abdullah, chief gunner. It is nearly five hundred years old, it is in the open air, and almost nobody stops at it.
The Royal Naval Division memorial
Horse Guards Parade SW1 Nearest station: Charing Cross
A fountain commemorating the 45,000 casualties of the Royal Naval Division, carrying a verse by Rupert Brooke, who served with the division and died on the way to Gallipoli. The memorial was removed to Greenwich for decades and returned here in 2003.
Lord Wolseley
Horse Guards Parade SW1 Nearest station: Charing Cross
An equestrian bronze by Sir William Goscombe John, erected in 1920 as one of a pair. Wolseley was the most celebrated soldier of the late Victorian army and the origin of the phrase all Sir Garnet, meaning everything in order. This is the work the Wikipedia article on Wolseley cites.
Lord Roberts
Horse Guards Parade SW1 Nearest station: Charing Cross
The other half of the pair: Roberts on horseback, a version of a statue first made for Calcutta. His horse Vonolel had campaign medals of his own from the Afghan war and is buried at the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Questions
Can you walk on Horse Guards Parade?
Yes, freely, on any day when it is not being used for a ceremony or an event. It is one of the largest open spaces in central London and one of the emptiest, which is part of why the objects around its edge go unnoticed.
Why is there a mortar on a dragon?
Because Spain gave Britain a captured French mortar in 1814 and the Prince Regent had it mounted on a cast-iron Chinese dragon to commemorate the lifting of the siege of Cádiz. No explanation of the dragon has ever satisfied anybody. It has been a standing joke in London writing for two centuries.
When is Trooping the Colour?
In June, on the date appointed for the sovereign's official birthday, with rehearsals on the two preceding Saturdays. Beating Retreat is also held here in June. On those days the parade ground is closed and ticketed.
Is the Ottoman gun really from 1524?
The date and the maker's name are cast into the barrel: Murad son of Abdullah, chief gunner. It was taken from French forces at Alexandria in 1802, having been captured by them from the Ottomans, which makes it a trophy twice over.
Elsewhere on this site: war memorials, horses in London sculpture.