Trafalgar Square

You are at the heart of the capital where a towering column reaches 52 metres into the sky, watched over by four bronze lions. This is Trafalgar Square, the most famous public gathering space in the city, named after a decisive naval battle fought on 21 October 1805. In that battle off the coast of Spain, the British navy defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets during the Napoleonic Wars. Admiral Horatio Nelson led the victory but died from a gunshot wound during the fight. To honour him, Nelson's Column was built here between 1840 and 1843, topped with a 5 metre statue of the fallen admiral.

The bronze reliefs decorating the column's base tell the story of his battles, cast from melted down French cannons captured in war. Before this square opened to the public in 1844, the site housed the King's Mews, royal stables that served nearby Whitehall Palace from the 14th century. Look around and you'll see the National Gallery to the north and the church of St Martin in the Fields nearby. Each December since 1947, a towering Norwegian spruce stands here as a gift from Oslo, thanking Britain for sheltering Norway's king and government during World War II. The square marks the true centre from which all distances across the capital are measured.