Duke of York Column

The Duke of York Column stands in London’s City of Westminster, marking the southern end of Regent Street at Waterloo Place and Gardens. It is a granite Tuscan column topped by a bronze statue of Prince Frederick, Duke of York, dressed in the robes of the Knights of the Garter. The monument was designed by Benjamin Dean Wyatt and completed in 1832, with the statue raised two years later by Sir Richard Westmacott. It rises 42 metres above The Mall, flanked by the grand terraces of Carlton House Terrace and their tree-lined squares. The Duke of York Steps lead down from the column to The Mall, forming a striking approach. Prince Frederick was commander-in-chief of the British Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and led its modernisation. After his death in 1827, the army raised £21,000 through a day’s wages from every soldier to fund his memorial. The column’s foundations descend six metres into the ground, built with layers of York stone and concrete. A spiral staircase of 168 steps once led to a viewing platform, but public access has been closed for decades. The monument’s height once prompted jokes that the Duke was fleeing his creditors, for he died owing two million pounds. Visitors find a commanding view of The Mall and St James’s Park from the column’s base. The surrounding ensemble was designed by John Nash as part of his grand Via Triumphalis route. Carlton House Terrace, once home to politicians like William Ewart Gladstone, stands beside the column, its palatial houses Grade I-listed. The column and terrace occupy the site of the Prince Regent’s former Carlton House, a lavish but short-lived palace. The granite, quarried in Aberdeenshire, gives the monument its distinctive light and dark hues. Despite its closed staircase, the column remains a striking landmark in one of London’s grandest settings.