Marble Arch - Marble Arch, London, UK
N 51° 30.793 W 000° 09.536
30U E 697131 N 5710726
Marble Arch is on a large roundabout that is formed where Park lane, Oxford Street, Edgeware Road and Bayswater Road meet. The arch is easy to spot.
Waymark Code: WMD5DP
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/21/2011
Views: 10
Marble Arch was built by the architect John Nash in 1828. The reliefs on either side are by Richard Westmacott and Edward Bailey. The grand statue of King George IV, which once sat atop the parapet, was moved to Trafalgar Square.
Nash based his design on the Constantine Arch in Rome, intending it to be the front gate of Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately the arch proved to be too narrow for the State Coach, and it was moved to its present position in 1851.
A memory of its former home still lingers on in local law… If you are feeling rebellious, then have a march through the central arch – as it is still technically illegal for a commoner to pass through the royal gate.
The area around Marble Arch today is rather less regal, as it was once the home of Tyburn Gallows. The original site is marked by a triangular plaque on the roadway.
Prisoners were dragged up from Newgate Prison and stood upon a wooden cart. The horses were then whipped and ran away, leaving them to dangle from a noose. An estimated 50,000 people were put to death between 1300 and 1783.
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