Charing Cross /ËŒtʃærɪŋ ˈkrÉ's/ denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London. It gives its name to several local landmarks, including Charing Cross railway station, one of the main London rail terminals.
Charing Cross is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood on the site, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The original site of the cross has been occupied since 1675 by an equestrian statue of King Charles I. A loose Victorian replica of the medieval cross, the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, was later erected a short distance to the east outside the railway station.
Formerly, until 1931, "Charing Cross" also referred to the part of what is now Whitehall lying between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square. At least one property retains a "Charing Cross" postal address: Drummonds Bank, on the corner of Whitehall and The Mall, which is designated "49 Charing Cross" (not to be confused with the separate Charing Cross Road).
Since the second half of the 18th century, Charing Cross has been seen by some as the exact "centre of London". It is one of the points used for measuring distances from London (together with the London Stone, Hicks Hall and the doors of St Mary-le-Bow church).
History
Location and etymology
"Erect a rich and stately carved cross,
Whereon her statue shall with glory shine;
And henceforth see you call it Charing Cross." George Peele The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First (1593)
The name of the hamlet of Charing is derived from the old English word "cierring", referring to the nearby bend in the River Thames.
The addition of the name "Cross" to the area's name originates from the Eleanor cross erected in 1291â€"94 by King Edward I as a memorial to his wife, Eleanor of Castile, and placed between the former hamlet of Charing and the entrance to the Royal Mews of the Palace of Whitehall (today the top of Whitehall on the south side of Trafalgar Square). Folk etymology suggests the name derives from chère reine â€" "dear queen" in French â€" but the original name pre-dates Eleanor's death by at least a hundred years.
This wooden sculpted cross was the work of the medieval sculptor, Alexander of Abingdon,. It was destroyed in 1647 on the orders of Parliament during the Civil War. The 70Â ft (21Â m)-high stone sculpture seen today in front of Charing Cross railway station is a copy of the original cross. Erected in 1865, it is situated a few hundred yards to the east of the original cross, on the Strand. It was designed by the architect of the hotel, E.M.Barry and carved by Thomas Earp of Lambeth from Portland stone, Mansfield stone (a fine sandstone) and Aberdeen granite. It is not a faithful replica, being more ornate than the original.
A variation on the name appears to be "Charygcrouche", near St Martin in the Fields, in 1396.
Since 1675 the original site of the cross has been occupied by a statue of King Charles I mounted on a horse. This site is recognised by modern convention as the centre of London for the purpose of indicating distances by road in favour of other previous measurement points (such as St Paul's Cathedral which remains as the root of the English and Welsh part of the Great Britain road numbering scheme). Charing Cross is marked on modern maps as a road junction, though it was previously also a postal address denoting the stretch of road between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square. Since 1 January 1931 this section of road has been designated as part of the Whitehall thoroughfare.
The Cross has given its name to a railway station, a tube station, a police station, a hospital, a hotel, a theatre, and a music hall (which lay beneath the arches of the railway station). Charing Cross Road the main route from the north (which becomes the east side of Trafalgar Square) was named after the railway station, which was a major destination for traffic, rather than for the original cross.
St Mary Rounceval
At some time between 1232 and 1236, the Chapel and Hospital of St Mary Rounceval was founded at Charing. This occupied land at the corner of the modern Whitehall and into the centre of Northumberland Avenue, running down to a wharf by the river. It was an Augustinian house, tied to a mother house at Roncesvalles, in the Pyrenees. The house and lands were seized for the King in 1379, under a statute "for the forfeiture of the lands of schismatic aliens". Protracted legal action returned some rights to the Prior, but in 1414, Henry V finally suppressed the 'alien' houses. The priory fell into a long decline due to lack of money, with further arguments over the collection of tithes with the parish church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. In 1541, religious artefacts were removed to St Margaret's, and the chapel was adapted as a private house, with the almshouse being sequestered to the Royal Palace.
In 1608â€"09, the Earl of Northampton built Northumberland House on the eastern portion of the property. In June 1874, the whole of the Duke's property at Charing Cross, was purchased by the Metropolitan Board of Works for the formation of Northumberland Avenue.
The frontage of the Rounceval property caused the narrowing at the end of the Whitehall entry to Charing Cross, and formed the section of Whitehall formerly known as Charing Cross, until road widening in the 1930s caused the rebuilding of the south side of the street â€" creating the current wide thoroughfare.
Battle
In 1554, Charing Cross was the site of the final battle of Wyatt's Rebellion. This was an attempt by Thomas Wyatt and others to overthrow Queen Mary I of England, soon after her accession to the throne and replace her with Lady Jane Grey. Wyatt's army had come from Kent, and with London Bridge barred to them, had crossed the river by what was then the next bridge upstream, at Hampton Court. Their circuitous route brought them down St. Martin's Lane to Whitehall.
The palace was defended by 1,000 men under Sir John Gage at Charing Cross; they retreated within Whitehall after firing their shot, causing consternation within â€" thinking the force had changed sides. The rebels â€" themselves, fearful of artillery on the higher ground around St James's â€" did not press their attack and marched onto Ludgate; where they were met by the Tower Garrison and surrendered.
Civil war removal
The Eleanor Cross was pulled down, by order of Parliament, in 1647, at the time of the English Civil War, becoming the subject of a popular Royalist ballad:
- Methinks the common-council shou'd
- Of it have taken pity,
- 'Cause, good old cross, it always stood
- So firmly in the city.
- Since crosses you so much disdain,
- Faith, if I were you,
- For fear the King should rule again,
- I'd pull down Tiburn too. (extract from "The Downfall of Charing Cross")
At the Restoration eight of the regicides were executed here, including the notable Fifth Monarchist, Colonel Thomas Harrison. A statue of Charles I was later erected on the site. This statue had been made in 1633 by Hubert Le Sueur, in the reign of Charles I, but in 1649 was ordered to be destroyed by Parliament. Subsequently, after being hidden by the man charged with destroying the statue, it resurfaced at the Restoration, and was erected here in 1675.
A prominent pillory, where malefactors were publicly flogged, was situated next to the statue of King Charles. To the south of Charing Cross was the Hungerford Market, established at the end of the 16th century; and to the north was the King's Mews, a royal stable. The area around the pillory was a popular place of street entertainment. Samuel Pepys records in his diaries visiting the surrounding taverns and watching the entertainments and executions that were held there. This whole area was transformed when Trafalgar Square was built on the site in 1832.
A famous inn called the "Golden Cross" â€" first mentioned in 1643 â€" stood in the former village of Charing. From here, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, coaches departed by various routes to Dover, Brighton, Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, Holyhead and York. The inn features in Sketches by Boz, David Copperfield and The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. In the last, the dangers to public safety of the low archway between the inn to the street were memorably pointed out by Mr Jingle :
"Heads, heads â€" take care of your heads", cried the loquacious stranger as they came out under the low archway which in those days formed the entrance to the coachyard. "Terrible place â€" dangerous work â€" other day â€" five children â€" mother â€" tall lady, eating sandwiches â€" forgot the arch â€" crash â€" knock â€" children look round â€" mother's head off â€" sandwich in her hand â€" no mouth to put it in â€" head of family off"
The inn was demolished for the creation of Trafalgar Square and a new Golden Cross Hotel was built in the 1830s on the triangular site now fronted by South Africa House. Though this hotel is now also gone, the memory is preserved in commercial offices facing the Strand named Golden Cross House.
Replacement
The railway station opened in 1864, fronted on the Strand with the Charing Cross Hotel. In 1865, a replacement cross was commissioned from E. M. Barry by the South Eastern Railway as the centrepiece of the station forecourt; about 160 feet (49Â m) east of the original site. It is not a replica, being of an ornate Victorian Gothic design based on George Gilbert Scott's Oxford Martyrs' Memorial (1838). The Cross rises 70 feet (21Â m) in three main stages on an octagonal plan, surmounted by a spire and cross. The shields in the panels of the first stage are copied from the Eleanor Crosses and bear the arms of England, Castile, Leon and Ponthieu; above the 2nd parapet are 8 statues of Queen Eleanor. The Cross was designated a Grade II* monument on 5 February 1970. The month before, the bronze equestrian statue of Charles, on a pedestal of carved Portland stone was given Grade I listed protection.
Fragments of the medieval original remain in the Museum of London.
Official use as central point
Since the second half of the 18th century Charing Cross, has been used as a reference to the centre of the metropolitan London area as contrasted to the City of London to the east, although the terms 'west end' and 'east end' take as their central referents the City. From the early 19th century, legislation applicable only to the London metropolis used Charing Cross as a central point to define its geographical scope. Its later use in legislation waned in favour of providing a schedule of local government areas and became mostly obsolete with the official creation of Greater London in 1965.
Prior to the selection of Charing Cross many locations were used. They were Hyde Park Corner, Whitechapel Church, the south side of London Bridge, the south side of Westminster Bridge, Shoreditch Church, Tyburn Turnpike, Holborn Bars, St Giles's Pound, Hick's Hall, the Standard in Cornhill, and the Stones' End in The Borough. Some of these objects had been moved or destroyed with their former locations being used for distances.
Geography
Transport
- Nearest stations
To the east of the Charing Cross road junction is Charing Cross railway station, situated on the Strand. On the other side of the river, connected by the pedestrian Golden Jubilee Bridges, are Waterloo East station and Waterloo station.
The nearest London Underground stations are Charing Cross and Embankment.
References
External links
- Charing Cross Bridge in London from Claude Monet, in YOUR CITY AT THE THYSSEN, a Thyssen Museum project on Flickr
- 'The statue of Charles I and site of the Charing Cross', Survey of London: volume 16: St Martin-in-the-Fields I: Charing Cross (1935), pp. 258â€"268. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=68141 Date accessed: 6 March 2014.
