Horse Guards Parade - London, UK
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 51° 30.273 W 000° 07.640
30U E 699361 N 5709848
Horseguards Parade is the location where the Queen, each June, reviews the Trooping of the Colour.
Waymark Code: WME2YA
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/27/2012
Views: 20
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Horse Guards Parade is a large parade ground off Whitehall in central London,... It is the site of the annual ceremonies of Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the monarch's official birthday, and Beating Retreat...
History
Horse Guards Parade was formerly the site of the Palace of Whitehall's tiltyard, where tournaments (including jousting) were held in the time of Henry VIII. It was also the scene of annual celebrations of the birthday of Queen Elizabeth I.
The area has been used for a variety of reviews, parades and other ceremonies since the 17th century.
It was once the Headquarters of the British Army. The Duke of Wellington was based in Horse Guards when he was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. The current General Officer Commanding London District still occupies the same office and uses the same desk. Wellington also had living quarters within the building, which today are used as offices...
Monuments
A number of military monuments and trophies ring the outside of the parade ground, including:
statues of Field Marshals Kitchener, Roberts and Wolseley
a Turkish cannon made in 1524 "by Murad son of Abdullah, chief gunner" which was captured in Egypt in 1801
the Cádiz Memorial, a French mortar mounted on a cast-iron Chinese dragon which commemorates the lifting of the siege of Cádiz in Spain in 1812
the Guards Memorial, designed by the sculptor Gilbert Ledward in 1923-26 and erected to commemorate the First Battle of Ypres and other battles of World War I.
In 2003 the Royal Naval Division Memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1925, was returned to its original site in Horse Guards Parade and rededicated on "Beaucourt Day" (13 November 2003).
An oddity is the black background to the number 2 of the double sided clock which overlooks the Parade Ground and the front entrance, it is popularly thought to commemorate the time the last absolute monarch of England, Charles I, was beheaded at the Banqueting House opposite."