National Heroes Square, formerly Trafalgar Square, is located in

Bridgetown Bridgetown ( UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The ...

, the capital and principal commercial centre of the island-nation of

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estima ...

. The square lies along Upper Broad Street and is on the northern shore of the Careenage ("Constitution River"), found directly in the centre of Bridgetown.

Name

The current name of National Heroes Square was adopted on 22 April 1999 and officially took effect on 28 April 1999. The name refers to the

Barbadian National Heroes The Order of National Heroes is the supreme honour within the national honours system of Barbados and was established by the Order of National Heroes Act 1998 by the Parliament of Barbados. Members are referred to as National Heroes, and are ...

. In 2009, the government of David Thompson opened up a proposal to rename the circle found in the Historic Landmark square as "Parliament Circle

and to completely redevelop and reconfigure the Square's layout.

Statue of Lord Nelson

A fixture of the Square on the west-end included a bronze statue of British naval hero Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Horatio, Lord Nelson. The statue in Bridgetown was unveiled on 22 March 1813 to commemorate the anniversary of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

's victory in the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1 ...

in 1805. The local statue of Lord Nelson in Bridgetown was erected approximately 27 years before the more famous

Nelson's Column Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built to commemorate Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson's decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar over the combined French and Spanish navies, during whic ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

, which serves as the centrepiece of

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...

. As a point of reference, the statue of Nelson served as the geographic centre of Bridgetown. Since the colonial period many distances on the island from Bridgetown have historically been measured from the base of Nelson's statue, so that the statue functioned as Barbados' mile zero. The use of the Bajan Nelson statue as a centring point is similar to the London statue in the British Capital; however Trafalgar Square is adjacent to the actual historic and geographic centre of London, which is actually located, immediately to the east, in

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City ...

. The monument which serves as London's exact centre is therefore not of Nelson, but the equestrian statue of Charles I, at Charing Cross, facing down Whitehall, standing where the

Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross The Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross is a memorial to Eleanor of Castile erected in the forecourt of Charing Cross railway station, London, in 1864–1865. It is a fanciful reconstruction of the medieval Eleanor cross at Charing, one of twelve memoria ...

had previously stood before being moved to the Charing Cross railway station forecourt.

Gallery

File:Bridgetown, Barbados, April 2007.jpg, View of the west wing of the Barbados Parliament Building from National Heroes Square. File:Heroes Square, Bridgetown (2000).jpg, The Cenotaph War Memorial, the Fountain Gardens, and Department of Inland Revenue in the background, November 2000. File:Lord Nelson, Nelson's Statue (close), Barbados.jpg, Lord Nelson's statue in

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, November 2000 (close-up). File:Lord Nelson, Nelson's Statue, Barbados.jpg, Lord Nelson's statue in

, November 2000. File:Heroes Square fountain, Bridgetown (2000).jpg, This fountain commemorates the introduction of piped water in Bridgetown. It was built in 1865.

References

External links

Photo of Lord Nelson statue located in Bridgetown
in

Buildings and structures in Bridgetown Squares in Barbados National squares 1813 establishments in the British Empire {{Barbados-geo-stub