Why It's Called Trafalgar Square: From Charing Cross to Nelson's Column

The site was historically Charing Cross, named for the Eleanor Cross (1290) marking Queen Eleanor's funeral procession rest. Henry VIII replaced it with a Holbein-designed cross.

In 1815, the Duke of Wellington won at Waterloo. By 1820, George IV commissioned a formal square as a Napoleonic Wars memorial, highlighting Admiral Lord Nelson's victories at Cape Trafalgar (1805).

The square initially held a disliked statue of George IV. It was replaced by Nelson's Column (1843)—the 169-ft monument with Nelson atop, guarded by Landseer's lions. The name Trafalgar Square stuck because of this centerpiece.