Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross

In front of Charing Cross station in Westminster stands the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, an octagonal stone construction of 21 metres in height. It rises in three tiers in the Neugotik and ends in a spire with a cross. The South Eastern Railway Company built it in 1865 and completed the hotel above the station a year later. The design comes from Edward Barry, who also rebuilt the Royal Opera House after the fire of the 1850s. Sculptor Thomas Earp used Portland and Mansfield stone as well as Aberdeen granite for the base.

The cross recalls Queen Eleanor of Castile, who passed away in 1290 as the wife of King Edward I. After her death, the king had twelve crosses erected, one at every overnight stop of the funeral procession. The route led from Lincoln, where she died, to her burial in Westminster Abbey. The medieval original, which stood nearby, was a victim of the civil war of 1647. Later a statue of Charles I took its place. The cross that you see there today is a recreation, planned according to three surviving drawings of the original. Further models were preserved Eleanor crosses and the tomb of the queen in the Abbey. Network Rail restored the cross from 2009 to 2010 and replaced over one hundred damaged elements.

The lowest tier bears coats of arms: for England, for León and Castile and for Ponthieu in France. All of it belongs to the history of the queen. She was born in Castile and León, and Ponthieu came to her with the marriage dowry. If you look up, eight crowned statues of the queen appear, four with orb and sceptre, four with Christian symbols. A kneeling angel crouches at the feet of each figure. And one more detail: the place of the original cross applies as the official centre of London.