Westminster Itinerary - Charing Cross
to Parliament Square
PhotoWalk starts at the base of the Charing
Cross outside the station.
Eleanor Memorial Cross, 1863 designed by E M Barry with sculpture by Thomas Earp, replaces the original cross
pulled down in 1647.
Walk along the Strand towards Trafalgar Square, on the right
is South Africa House. 1935 by Sir Herbert Baker and Alexander Thomson Scott, decorative
carvings by Joseph Armitage to
designs by Sir Charles Wheeler.
Cross Trafalgar square observing the Fountains by Edwin Lutyens
1937-9 with figures of Mermen 1948 by Wheeler
and Mermaids by W McMillan.
(photography is banned in Trafalgar Square!). Ahead is Canada House, 1824-7 with a portico of Ionic Columns by Sir Robert Smirke. Cross over to view Admiralty Arch (now to be turned into a hotel) 1908-11 by Sir Aston Webb.
Passing Drummonds Bank, 1885 by George Aitchison in a late Italianate
new Palladian style. Now along Whitehall which has a stream of impressive
buildings and probably the greatest concentration of Portland Stone faced
buildings in any one location.
Due to the great number of interesting buildings along
Whitehall and around Parliament Square not all of them are covered on this
PhotoWalk, with a second walk looking at the remaining buildings.
First in line is the Old
Admiralty Building 1723-6 by Thomas
Ripley with a front screen of 1759-61 by Robert Adam. Opposite is 55
Whitehall, 1906-9 by J W Murrey
in Edwardian classical style. Then comes the Old War Office Building, 1899-1906 by William & Clyde Young and Sir
John Taylor in grand English Baroque.
Passing the Banqueting
House and with Horse Guards on
the other side of the road, we come to Dover
House, 1754-8 by James Paine with
a Greek Ionic portico flanked by columns and rusticated wall 1787 by Henry Holland.
Opposite is the’ great white whale’ of the MOD building, designed in 1913 by Vincent Harris but not completed until 1959.
Edwardian Imperial with giant columns and Earth & Water sculptures at the
entrance by Sir Charles Wheeler (not
his best work).
Next along Whitehall are the Treasury,
Cabinet and Privy Council buildings, 1733-36 by William Kent, 1824-27 by Sir
John Soane, remodelled and altered
1845-47 by Sir Charles Barry
using Soane’s columns and frieze.
Passing Downing Street we come to the first of the two
massive Victorian office blocks, the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office building 1862-75 by George Gilbert Scott to a ‘florid Italian Cinquecento design’
(Scott’s initial design was in a Gothic style). Then comes the ‘New’ Government Office building (now
the Treasury) 1899 by J M Brydon,
completed 1912 by Sir Henry Tanner.
Finally a clutch of listed Telephone Kiosks designed by Giles
Gilbert Scott, K2 in 1927 and K6 in 1935.
