Statue of Spencer Compton Eighth Duke of Devonshire - geograph

Horse Guards Avenue is a road in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, linking the major thoroughfares of

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

and

Victoria Embankment Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, and acts as a major thoroughfare ...

, to the east of the Horse Guards building and parade area. The entrance of the Main Building of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), flanked by its monumental ''Earth'' and ''Water'' statues, opens onto the Avenue. A statue of a Gurkha soldier, unveiled in 1997, stands as a memorial in front of the Ministry of Defence.

History

The Avenue falls entirely within the area once occupied by the

Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. H ...

, which was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1698, save for the now historic listed building,

Banqueting House In English architecture, mainly from the Tudor period onwards, a banqueting house is a separate pavilion-like building reached through the gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining, especially eating. Or it may be buil ...

. It was originally a narrow street called Whitehall Yard on which stood a number of houses, most notably Carrington House, the residence of

Lord Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secret ...

. The building was demolished in 1896 to make room for the widening of the street preparatory to the construction of the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

building. The Avenue was planned as part of a subsequent project to build a large Government building, begun in 1909 but not completed until 1951. On completion, the Avenue formed the northern boundary of this new building, which since 1964 has been used as the Main Building of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).Ministry of Defence, Main building.

Road layout

Horse Guards Avenue, running from west to east, connects the major north–south thoroughfares of Whitehall and Embankment. Beginning at a

T junction A three-way junction (or three-way intersection) is a type of road intersection with three arms. A Y junction (or Y intersection) generally has three arms of equal size coming at an acute or obtuse angle to each other; while a T junction (or T i ...

with Whitehall at a point opposite the Horse Guards building, the Avenue continues eastward to another T junction on Embankment. Approximately long, it provides for a single lane of widely separated traffic in each direction, with a slight curve bowing its course to the north midway along. Other than Whitehall and the Embankment, the only other public road connecting with the Avenue is Whitehall Court, a one way road joining the Avenue from the north as another T-Junction, midway along its length. A small private access road, Whitehall Gardens, is located at its western end, running south. Horse Guards Road is not connected to Horse Guards Avenue, being approximately away beyond the Horse Guards building and parade ground.

Adjoining buildings

The Avenue is overlooked by four buildings - the MoD Main Building and Banqueting House on the south side separated by Whitehall Gardens, and the Old

Building and

Whitehall Court Whitehall Court in the City of Westminster, England, is one contiguous building but consists of two separate constructions. The south end was designed by Thomas Archer and A. Green and constructed as a block of luxury residential apartments in ...

on the north side, separated by Whitehall Court road. The north frontage of the MoD building and its entrance dominates the south side of the Avenue, with the smaller Banqueting House situated to the west in the corner with Whitehall. To the north, the Old War Office building lies on the west side of Whitehall Court road fronting onto Whitehall, while the Whitehall Court building lies on the opposite side. Towards Embankment, the frontages of both the Whitehall Court building and MoD building end at the same place, with the Avenue continuing on to the junction with Embankment through the public gardens which line the west side of Embankment.

Other landmarks

Earth and Water Statues on MoD Main Building in London MOD 45152995

A statue of

Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire, (23 July 183324 March 1908), styled Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1834 and 1858 and Marquess of Hartington between 1858 and 1891, was a British statesman. He has the distinction of having ...

by Herbert Hampton stands in the middle of the Avenue at the Whitehall end, facing Horse Guards. Opposite the MoD building entrance stands the

Gurkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recruit ...

Monument, on the corner of the Avenue and Whitehall Court road, with the soldier statue facing west looking towards Whitehall. Sculpted by Philip Jackson, it was unveiled in 1997 by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

. The entrance to the MoD building itself is flanked by two monumental statues, ''Earth'' and ''Water'', by Charles Wheeler.

IRA mortar attack

Horse Guards Avenue was the launch site of the

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

's 1991

Downing Street mortar attack The Downing Street mortar attack was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 7 February 1991. The IRA launched three homemade mortar shells at 10 Downing Street, London, the headquarters of the British government, in an ...

. A transit van was parked on the Avenue near the corner with Whitehall, and the mortar launch occurred minutes later. The incident led to a ban on street parking in the area.

Footnotes

References

External links

{{Coord, 51.5049, -0.1249, type:landmark_region:GB-WSM, display=title Streets in the City of Westminster