thumb|250px|The Wellington Arch 2013

The Wellington Arch, also known as the Constitution Arch or (originally) 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, the road junction near the south-eastern corner of Hyde Park. The Arch stands on a large green-space traffic island with crossings for pedestrian access.

The arch was built between 1826 and 1830 directly opposite Burton's Ionic Screen as part of a majestic approach route from Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace. In 1882–1883 it was taken down and rebuilt a short distance away, facing west, at its current site at the top of the Constitution Hill.

As a result of a moratorium on expenditure from 1828, all the intended sculpture was omitted from the arch when it was built. A public subscription was raised in 1837 for an equestrian statue of the 1st Duke of Wellington, to be placed on the arch. In 1846, over the vehement objections of Burton, a colossal equestrian statue by the sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt was installed on the arch, leading to the name by which the arch is known.

When the arch was rebuilt in 1882-83, Matthew Cotes Wyatt's colossal statue was not reinstated. It was held in storage in London until 1885, when it was moved to Aldershot and re-erected. Since 1912 the sculpture Peace descending on the Quadriga of War by Adrian Jones, a bronze of the Goddess of Victory Nike riding a quadriga (an ancient four-horse chariot), has surmounted the arch.

Construction

thumb|1813 proposal by William Kinnard for a triumphal arch across [[Piccadilly at Hyde Park Corner. Apsley House can be seen through the arch.]]

Even before the Battle of Waterloo had been fought, proposals were being made for a triumphal arch at Hyde Park Corner. One, by the architect William Kinnard, was remarkably similar to the final form which the Wellington Arch was to reach 100 years later (except that George III was atop the quadriga rather than Nike).

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".

thumb|East lodge to Prince of Wales's Gate, Hyde Park, 2023

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 in the classical style, viz. Cumberland Gate, Stanhope Gate, Grosvenor Gate, the Ionic Screen at Hyde Park Corner and, later, the Prince of Wales's Gate, Knightsbridge. There were no authoritative precedents in the classical style for such buildings, which required windows and chimney stacks. In the opinion of architectural historian Guy Williams, "Burton's reticent treatment of the supernumerary features" and of the cast iron gates and railings was "greatly admired". He accepted Burton's proposal for a gateway, a classical screen and a triumphal arch. Those approaching Buckingham Palace from the north would pass first through the screen, then through the arch, before turning left to descend Constitution Hill and enter the forecourt of Buckingham Palace through John Nash's Marble Arch.thumb|left|1827 engraving showing the full ornamentation originally intended for the arch, including reliefs and statues. The engraving, from [[Thomas H. Shepherd's Metropolitan Improvements, was published while the arch was still under construction.]]Burton's original design for the triumphal arch was modelled on the Arch of Titus at Rome, the source for the central and side blocks of the Ionic Screen. It therefore cohered perfectly with the Screen, but was rejected by the Committee because it was not sufficiently ostentatious. Burton created a new design, "to pander to the majestic ego". This was much larger and modelled on a fragment found in the Roman Forum. It was accepted on 14 January 1826, and subsequently became the present Wellington Arch.

Sculpture of the triumphal arch

thumb|right|The [[Wellington Statue, Aldershot|Wellington Statue on the Arch in the 1850s. The arch faced the central arch of the Ionic Screen, which formed the entrance to Hyde Park. Apsley House is visible to the right. ]]

When it was built, the arch was left without decorative sculpture. In 1837 a public subscription was raised for an equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, to be placed on top of the arch. The organiser was Sir Frederick Trench, with his patron John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland. They selected as sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt, of whom F. M. O'Donoghue wrote in the Dictionary of National Biography "thanks to royal and other influential patronage, Wyatt enjoyed a reputation and practice to which his mediocre abilities hardly entitled him".

Burton repeatedly expressed his opposition to the proposal "as plainly and as vehemently as his nature allowed" over subsequent years. The statue would "disfigure" his arch, for which it was much too large. Contrary to all classical precedent, it would have to be placed across, instead of in line with, the roadway under the arch.

Burton's objections were endorsed by most of the aristocratic residents of London.

Burton's great-nephew Francis Fearon compiled and published a pamphlet that advocated that if the arch was moved, Wellington's statue should not go with it: the arch should be "relieved once and for all of its unsightly load". The statue is the largest bronze sculpture in Europe.

Public access

thumb|A mounted Metropolitan Police Officer outside the front entrance to Wellington Arch Police Office

The arch is hollow inside and until 1992 housed the smallest police station in London. Transferred to the ownership of English Heritage in 1999, it is open to the paying public: three floors of exhibits detailing the history of the arch, Exhibition space, and high terraces on both sides of the arch with views of the surrounding area. One half of the arch functions as a ventilation shaft for the Hyde Park Corner road underpass, constructed in 1961–1962.

See also

  • Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, Aldershot

References

  • Wellington Arch Victorian-era postcard