Horse Guards

Horse Guards stands between Whitehall and Horse Guards Parade in the City of Westminster. It replaced an earlier building in the mid-18th century and served as barracks and stables for the Household Cavalry. The site once formed the entrance to the Palace of Whitehall and later St James’s Palace. Today it remains a military headquarters while also housing the Household Cavalry Museum. The building links Whitehall with St James’s Park and is still ceremonially defended by the King’s Life Guard. The first Horse Guards was built in 1663 for King Charles II on the site of earlier stables. It included stabling for over a hundred horses and a clock tower over the archway. After a fire at Whitehall in 1698, the building became the main approach to St James’s Palace. A new Palladian-style building designed by William Kent replaced it in the 1750s, doubling the interior space. The Duke of Wellington once used the room now occupied by the Major-General Commanding London District. The clock above the arch still strikes the hours and marks the time of Charles I’s execution. Visitors enter through the main archway beneath the clock with two seven-foot dials. The Household Cavalry Museum shows exhibits on the regiment’s history, uniforms and regalia. Through a glazed partition, the 18th-century stables still house working horses. Each afternoon at four o’clock the guards and horses are inspected, a tradition begun by Queen Victoria in 1894. The mounted King’s Life Guard rides from Hyde Park Barracks daily to take over guard duties at eleven o’clock. The sentry boxes and gates on the Whitehall front are Grade I listed alongside the building.