subject: The Marble Arch – The Roman-Inspired Tribute to British Royalty [print this page] The Marble Arch The Roman-Inspired Tribute to British Royalty
London wears many crowns among the great metropolises of the world. As one of the matchless grand dames of Europe rivaled only by her French counterpart, as one of the great cosmopolitan hubs of industry while retaining its quintessentially aristocratic, Britishness of high teas and boxy black taxis, it is evident that London is a city that wears its centuries well. It is also undisputable that London is a city with an unbelievable proliferation of globally recognizable landmarks.
The Marble Arch is one of the landmark sights of the icon-strewn cityscape vista of London, its white Carrara Marble faade gleaming pristinely like a grandiose portal into ancient Rome. The inherent regality and trademark elegance with which architect John Nash imbued his creations, transforms the sheer incongruity of its placement at the center teeming traffic island upon the convergence of Oxford Street, Park Lane and Edgeward Road, into a mystique that holds itself aloof from the ordered chaos of modernity.
Created in the childhood of Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens, John Nash's creation originally served as the main entrance to Buckingham Palace (also a result of Nash's conversion from Buckingham House), designed to echo the formidable grandeur of Emperor Constantine's Triumphal Arch in Rome. However, the later extensions of the palace grounds necessitated the Arch be moved elsewhere and finally found a new home opposite to London's magnificent Hyde Park, serving as the entrance to a small park of its own which forms an oasis between the torrent of traffic on both sides of the junction. However, the old tradition that only the Royal Family, the Royal Horse Artillery and the King's Troop are allowed to pass through the Arch is still upheld.
The dichotomy in the Arch's positioning is exemplified by the fact that it is at once near the largest Marks and Spencer in the U.K as well as the Tyburn Gallows which served as a public execution ground from the 14th through to the 18th century.
It is a little-known fact that the Arch in fact houses three small rooms fitted into its massive walls which was used as police station up until 1950. Famous personalities who served in these quarters of the Royal Constabulary include Samuel Parks, a Victoria Cross honoree for his participation in the Charge of the Light Brigade.
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