Who owns horse guards parade

The northern half of the building housed the duty troops of the Household Cavalry while the Foot Guard were housed on the south side with their own small courtyard formed from an area of the old Tiltyard not built upon. From this the Foot Guard acquired its name as the Tiltyard Guard. The Household Cavalry Sentries stood guard in their sentry boxes as today, with duty detachments providing travelling escorts whenever members of the Royal Family left the Palace of Whitehall.

At that time the only entrance to it was through the Horse Guards building and entry was strictly controlled by a system of passes. This tradition continues today with the allocation of oval plastic passes formerly ivory to selected courtiers.

Only the monarch has the right to ride through Horse Guards Arch without displaying a pass to sentries. Having always had the Palace in front of them to guard, overnight old Horse Guards found that responsibility transferred to its rear. However, Horse Guards remained as the only official entrance to the Court and has done so ever since. Over the years the old building was increasingly used as a military administrative base and had become overcrowded and cramped. It had also fallen into disrepair and by the sentries were said to be in danger from falling masonry.

In that year King George II agreed to replace the building and the design was entrusted to William Kent, who had also designed the new Treasury building just to the south. Not permitted to encroach on St James's Park , Kent kept the basic design of the old building, including the domed clock tower, but extended the wings around the courtyard, doubling its capacity.

The building was intended as a dramatic Palladian-style entrance to what was going to be a new Palace where the old Palace of Whitehall had stood. However, George III instead bought Buckingham Palace as his principle residence, which of course is still in use today. It continued the previous clock's proud tradition as the most accurate timepiece in West London until the installation of Big Ben in A coffee house, established in rooms of the floors overlooking Whitehall, rapidly acquired an unsavoury reputation.

Horse Guards being considered a military garrison, any attempt by the civil police to deal with disorder was strongly resisted but after being described in a War Office Memo as "to all intents and purposes a common public house, occupied by people of the worst character and low women" it was finally closed in Absolutely no comparison should be made with the current NMFI canteen.

Evidence of other non-military activities on the cavalry side of the building takes the form of a recently excavated cockpit in the basement, complete with fireplace and a small spectator area.

The rusticated character given to the masonry on this front, with its strong plain string courses and a main entablature with modillioned cornice and pulvinated frieze, gives suitable emphasis to the purpose for which the buildings were designed. On the Whitehall side the note of architectural severity is obtained by different means, but is almost equally expressive of the purpose for which this remarkable example of mid-eighteenth-century architecture was designed.

The central block, already referred to, has a frontage to the courtyard, with a pedimented gable in which are carved the Royal Arms and Supporters Plate The returns on the north and south sides of the courtyard are of less height, and terminate in the plain two-storey return wings that face directly on to Whitehall.

In this case, as with the western front, its impressive effect, as an architectural composition, is largely due to the cubistic arrangement of the blocks and the advancing and recessed planes that arise from the arrangement of the plan.

While in the main the group represents, as already mentioned, a period of construction between and , a few later additions are apparent that include the low building formed behind the screen wall connecting the wings, with the back portion continued up an extra storey in height, the main cornice being continued across it. The effect of this later addition is made apparent when the illustration by Vardy in Plate 3 is compared with the drawing on Plate 4, though the general effect of the buildings as left by Kent and Vardy can hardly be said to have been materially altered.

Apart from the rustications on the western front, a great deal of the heavy solidity of effect expressed in the treatment is due to the use of the arch, mainly at the ground-floor stage, but also in certain portions of the first floor, where the formation of round-headed recesses in the masonry is combined with insertion therein of the orthodox rectangular-shaped and pedimented window.

On the western front are examples of the Venetian type of window similarly introduced within arched recesses. The arcaded character of the ground-floor storey is continued and emphasised in the vaulted road and footways that connect the Whitehall courtyard with the Parade—in itself a feature of considerable interest relative to the whole composition.

In this connection, whatever may be felt as to the adequacy of its size or scale, the solid simplicity of the central cupola affords a feature according well with the general design of these buildings. The details of treatment, including the profiling of mouldings, have been determined with great judgment, and go to make this group of buildings one of the most distinguished of its period. The courtyard is enclosed with high wrought-iron railings and gates.

On each side is a pavilion guard-house, erected in stone with a slate roof, to accommodate a mounted sentry, and closed with double doors. A drawing, which has been accredited to Kent by Professor Richardson, shows alternative positions for these guard-houses Plate 7. As regards the accommodation that the buildings provide, the ground floor on the north side is mainly devoted to stabling and quarters for the King's Life Guard, with stores and offices in the rest of the floor.

The remainder of the block is occupied by the headquarters of the Eastern Command and London District respectively. Living quarters are provided on the upper floor to the wings facing Whitehall. The rooms on the ground floor of the central block are panelled to the springing of the coved ceiling, as illustrated in Plate 28, showing Room No. The staircases are in stone with plain iron balustrading, the basement flights having a stone newel Plate The following details are given of additional features of historic and artistic interest.

The walls are panelled in three heights with a moulded dado rail and enriched frieze, finished with a moulded modillion cornice. The ceiling is divided into panels by moulded bands containing the guilloche ornament. One of the chief features of the room is the Venetian window, which has fluted Ionic pilasters supporting the entablature Plate The mantelpiece is in grey marble, with the shelf supported on scrolled trusses.

The oval table in the room bears a brass plate with the following inscription: "This table was habitually used by Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, K. There is also a marble bust of the Duke of Wellington on a pedestal. On the other side of the vestibule is the waiting-room, now occupied by the Headquarters Library of the Corps of Royal Engineers Officers.

It overlooks the quadrangle to Whitehall and has features similar to those of the last-mentioned room Plate The Vestibule is octangular on plan and rises to the full height of the clock chamber in the cupola. It is of somewhat special architectural interest.

The walls are divided into three stages, the lower having semicircular niches and arched doorways with an entablature of the Doric order containing tablets in the frieze, which bear alternately the initials "G.

The wall surfaces above contain recesses and niches, with semicircular windows in the top stage, affording the sole means of light to the vestibule below. The whole is completed by a coved ceiling springing from angle trusses Plate Above is the octangular chamber containing the clock and chimes, access to which is obtained from the lead flat.

Three bells are suspended in the upper portion below the small stone domed roof of the open turret Plate The hour bell is inscribed "Long live the King During the Trooping the Colour , the central windows are opened so members of the Royal Family can watch the Queen reviewing her troops below. In addition to Trooping the Colour, Horse Guards Parade plays host to the floodlit musical spectacular of Beating Retreat by the massed bands of the Household Division over two successive evenings in June.

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