A tall statue commemorating an English Hero
Admiral Horatio Nelson's Column
Rising high above Trafalgar Square in London, England, the monument commemorates the loss of Admiral Horatio Nelson to Napoleon's Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Conceived in 1838, work on the statue began in 1840 and was not completed until dedication in 1843. Designed by architect William Railton in 1838, the statue of Nelson's Column was built and erected by Peto & Grissell.
The original sculpture, a 2.3m (7.7 ft.) model of the whole statue is still on display at the National Maritime Museum in the Greenwich suburb of London, England. This 1:22 scale of Nelson's Column is made of stone and lacks a left hand.
The largest part of the statue is the column itself. The granite pillar, over 46m (151 ft.) tall, is modeled upon Corinthian columns found at Mars Field in Rome.
Atop the column is a 5.5m (18 ft.) sandstone lifelike model of the admiral and lord himself, Horatio Nelson. It was sculpted by E.H. Baily of the Royal Academy. The statue depicts Nelson in a characteristic 18th century pose with a sword at his side. Admiral Nelson is gazing southward toward his four prize naval ships, situated atop flagpoles in the neighboring Pall Mall.
There are four brass panels creating a “plinth” at the bottom of Nelson's Column. They were made from captured French munitions, melted down and reworked by four different sculptors. Musgrave Watson made the East facing side, depicting the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. The panel crafted by John Ternouth depicts the Battle of Copenhagen. William F. Woodington showed Horatio Nelson loosing an eye at the Battle of the Nile. The Northern panel was crafted by John Edward Carew and shows the heroic death of Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, which was won posthumously.
Other decorations adorning the statuary include acanthus leaves cast from salvaged British cannons decorating the top of the statue. At the bottom of Nelson's Column are four life-sized lions, cast in bronze and designed by Edwin Landseer. Having never seen a lion, Landseer gave them dog paws.
In 2006, the Nelson's Column statue was refurbished for the first time. A professional firm, responsible for many other monuments in London, oversaw the gentle cleaning of the statue with steam and mild abrasives. During the work, lasers revealed the height of the tower had been incorrectly given for over 150 years. Nelson's Column is actually over 15 feet shorter than the often-reported height of 56m (185 ft.). Advertising displayed on the scaffold covered the entire cost of the statue's restoration.