Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London, is a 169-foot monument built to honor Admiral Horatio Nelson following his victory and death at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. Its base features four bronze relief panels cast from captured French cannons, and the monument is guarded by four seven-ton bronze lions sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer, whose paws were modeled after a common house cat.

London Β· from the walk β€œLondon's Best-Kept Secrets” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN

Why do the bronze lions at Nelson's Column in London have paws modeled after a house cat?

Look up. Way up. That figure standing one hundred and sixty-nine feet above you is Admiral Horatio Nelson... and the story of how he got up there is almost as dramatic as the battle that killed him.......... In eighteen oh five, Nelson led the Royal Navy against a combined force of thirty-three French and Spanish ships at the Battle of Trafalgar... destroying about twenty of them without losing a single British vessel. It was a total triumph. But Nelson never saw his victory celebrated. He was killed by a French sniper during the battle.......... Now, here's something most people walk right past. The statue of Nelson faces south, down Whitehall, toward the Admiralty... and ultimately in the direction of Cape Trafalgar in southern Spain β€” forever gazing toward the scene of his greatest and final battle. And if you could somehow get close enough, you'd see the sleeve of his amputated right arm neatly tucked into the lapel of his coat β€” a subtle detail most visitors never notice from the ground.......... But here's my Favourite story. See those four bronze panels around the base? Despite Nelson's Column celebrating France's defeat, France unintentionally provided material for it. The reliefs were fashioned from captured French guns that were melted down and remoulded. Talk about adding insult to injury!......... And the lions... oh, the lions have a tale of their own. The commission went to Sir Edwin Landseer in eighteen fifty-eight. He was, after all, a painter, not a sculptor. However, he was the age's foremost animal artist. He made sketches of lions at London Zoo and eventually received a corpse of one to work with. But delays in completing the work meant that the corpse started to decompose. And so by the time Landseer got around to sculpting the paws... the paws were based on those of a cat, and the lions' backs ended up concave when they should be convex. Next time you're close, take a good look at those paws... they're House Cat paws on a seven-ton bronze beast!......... And according to London legend, these seven-ton statues will awaken if Big Ben ever chimes thirteen times.......... One last secret. A few days before Nelson's statue was hoisted into place, a party of fourteen people ate a perilous steak dinner on top of the column. Just imagine... sitting one hundred and seventy feet in the air, no railings, carving into a sirloin. Victorian Londoners clearly had nerves of steel.......... And it's no secret that Adolf Hitler was fascinated by Britain and its empire. If Operation Sea Lion β€” the Nazi plan for invading the UK β€” had been successful, he planned to relocate Nelson's Column to Berlin. Thankfully... it's still standing right where it belongs.

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