Apsley House and Wellington Arch

Went with the Canadian ladies to visit Wellington's house at Hyde Park corner: Apsley House. (Named after its original owner.) I tried to get as little traffic as possible in the photo, but you have to image a four-lane highway right in front of what's known as "Number 1, London", so it was difficult. (We weren't allowed to take any photos inside, either.)

The tour was handled by a fellow Canadian, Belinda Beaton, who has been studying Wellington and written her dissertation on him, so she had a wealth of information about his life, his military tactics and the politics of the day. It was really easy to picture the post-Waterloo celebrations at Apsley House with Wellington as its host and hundreds of the military elite sitting down to dinner in the newly built west wing banquet hall. (The re-creation painting of it certainly didn't hurt, either.) Wellington amassed hundreds of gifts of paintings, dinner services and other artifacts to see, and what amazes you is that all of it was gifted to him. Wellington could have obtained it by looting and pillaging during all the wars he fought, but you could really see what a principled man he was.

We then went across the street to walk up to the top of Wellington's Arch. The photo here does not give it justice, but the horses on top are amazingly detailed and life-like. The views over Green Park and the back of Buckingham Palace were lovely too. I think the views would have been more interesting had the Arch been in the same place as when it started, facing Hyde Park and Apsley House, but back then it was being used as the smallest police station in London and as a thoroughfare north and southbound. They ended up moving it to its present position on a traffic island off south east of the House when they decided to widen the main east-west route in and out of London. (I don't think you could fit some of the 4x4's through the middle of it anymore anyway.)