It is a long time since I went to that part of London which runs from Pall Mall, through St James’s and Green Park, and on to Hyde Park Corner. I had that chance last week, walking off an agreeable lunch on a beautiful afternoon.
Just before Hyde Park Corner, I came across four stone pillars with urns on top, standing on each side of the carriageway.
Beside them, on the Green Park side, was a little pavilion. I had no recollection of them.
That, it turns out, is because they have been there only since 2002. They are the Commonwealth Memorial Gates, and they commemorate people from the Indian sub-continent, from Africa, and from the Caribbean who fought for the British Empire in the two great wars of the 20th century. The pavilion remembers those from these places who were awarded the Victoria Cross or George Cross.
The details can be found in a Wikipedia page here.
I rather liked them, perhaps in part because their style fits well with the surrounding monuments (which is probably why my first assumption was that they had always been there and that I had forgotten them). Others will perhaps wish that something more contemporary had been done.
Beyond the Memorial Gate lies Hyde Park Corner, dominated by Decimus Burton’s Wellington Arch, built between 1826 and 1830.
The quadriga on the top is not the original decoration. That was an enormous equestrian statue of Wellington, loathed by Decimus Burton who considered that his arch would become a “mere pedestal” to the 28-foot-high statue.
The story of the arch and its oversized horse, and of the removal of the latter to Aldershot and its replacement by the present quadriga, are all told in a Wikipedia article here.
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