Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square. Recognised as the centre of HM Government, the road is lined with government departments/ministries; "Whitehall" is therefore also frequently used as a metonym for overall UK governmental administration, as well as being a geographic name for the surrounding district.
The name is taken from the vast Palace of Whitehall that used to occupy the area but which was largely destroyed by fire in 1698. Whitehall was originally a wide road that led to the front of the palace. Trafalgar Square was built at its northern extremity in the early 19th century. The southernmost part by Parliament Square is Parliament Street, but there is no longer any obvious distinction between the two on the ground. Combined, the streets cover a total distance of about 0.6 mile (1 kilometre).
Contents |
[edit] History
Parliament Street was a small side road alongside the palace leading to the Palace of Westminster. When the palace was demolished, Parliament Street was widened to match Whitehall's width. The present appearance of the street is largely the result of 19th century redevelopment.
The Banqueting House, built in 1622 by Inigo Jones, is the only surviving portion of the former palace. Charles I was executed on 30 January 1649 on a scaffold erected outside the building, stepping onto it from a first-floor window. Royalists commemorate the regicide annually on the anniversary of the execution.
The name Whitehall is often used as a metonym to refer that part of the civil service which is involved in the government of the United Kingdom, similar to the use of "Kremlin" to refer to the Russian/Soviet governments, or "White House" to refer to the executive branch of the government of the United States.
The Cenotaph, the principal war memorial of Britain, is in the centre of the road, and is the site of the annual memorial ceremonies on Remembrance Sunday. In 2005 a Monument to the Women of World War II was placed just a short distance northwards from the Cenotaph.
The central portion of the street is dominated by military buildings, including the Ministry of Defence, with the former headquarters of the British Army and Royal Navy, the Royal United Services Institute, the Horse Guards building and the Admiralty, on the opposite side. The road also hosts equestrian statues of George, Duke of Cambridge, a former Army Commander-in-Chief and Earl Haig, Commander in Chief of the British Armies in France 1915-1918 (the latter also being known as the Earl Haig Memorial).
Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, was originally located in Great Scotland Yard off the north-eastern end of the street, but relocated to New Scotland Yard on the Victoria Embankment in 1890.
Downing Street leads off the south-west end of Whitehall, just above Parliament Street. It is closed to the public at both ends by security gates erected in 1989.[1] These have since been supplemented by a further gated barrier around three metres outside the main gates.
Recently, security measures have been put in place along Whitehall for the protection of the government buildings that line the street. This is partly due to a £25 million streetscape project undertaken by the Westminster City Council and approved months before the 2005 London bombings.[2] Still in progress, the project has caused disruption along Whitehall, but wider pavements, better lighting and hundreds of concrete and steel security barriers are now in place.
[edit] Government buildings in Whitehall (north to south)
- Admiralty
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
- Old War Office
- Office of the Parliamentary Counsel
- Horse Guards
- Ministry of Defence
- Scotland Office (Dover House)
- Wales Office (Gwydyr House)
- Cabinet Office
- 10 Downing Street
- Department of Health
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Government Offices Great George Street, housing HM Treasury, HM Revenue and Customs and parts of the Cabinet Office.
[edit] Other notable buildings in Whitehall
- Banqueting House
- Cenotaph
- Monument to the Women of World War II
- Trafalgar Studios (formerly the Whitehall Theatre)
[edit] See Also
- The Whitehall Study of stress and health in civil servants
[edit] Bibliography
- Whitehall Through The Centuries by George S Dugdale (Assistant at the London Museum) with black and white reproductions and plans. A foreword by Sir Edward Bridges[3]
- Brown, Colin (2009) Whitehall: The Street that Shaped a Nation Simon & Schuster Ltd. ISBN 978-1847370778
[edit] External links
- Aerial photo and map
- Whitehall in 1669, showing the Banqueting House and Holbein Gateway
- History of the Whitehall Theatre built on Whitehall in 1930
[edit] Gallery
-
Whitehall, London, looking south towards the Houses of Parliament. The tower is Victoria Tower.
-
In 1799 many of the sites now occupied by large government buildings were covered with terraced houses and Parliament Street had not been widened.
-
A London cab zooms between two monuments on Whitehall, between Horse Guards and 10 Downing Street
Wikipedia London Portal showcase picture for April 2008.
[edit] Notes
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Whitehall |
- ^ John Michael Lee, George William Jones, June Burnham, At the Centre of Whitehall: Advising the Prime Minister and Cabinet, p. 42. St. Martin's Press, 1998. ISBN 0312177305
- ^ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23404303-the-latest-terror-victims-whitehalls-trees.do
- ^ First published by Phoenix House (London) in 1950 with no ISBN
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
