London - Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column ranks with Big Ben and Tower Bridge as one of the great London landmarks. The 56m/185ft high Nelson Monument, or Nelson's Column, by William Railton (1840-43) was constructed of granite from Devon. From the summit of the column a statue of Nelson 9m/27ft high, looks down on the busy activity of Trafalgar Square, with its fountains (designed by Sir Edward Lutyens and erected in 1948), its pigeons, its swarming humanity and its swirling traffic. On the base of the monument are four bronze reliefs, cast from French cannons, depicting Nelson's victories at Cape St Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar and bearing his famous words: "England expects every man will do his duty". The bronze lions at the four corners were modeled by Sir Edwin Landseer (1868).