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Tube: Leicester Square or Charing Cross. Despite being little more than a glorified, sunken traffic island, infested with scruffy urban pigeons, Trafalgar Square is still one of London's grandest architectural set-pieces. John Nash designed the basic layout in the 1820s, but died long before the square took its present form. The Neoclassical National Gallery filled up the northern side of the square in 1838, followed five years later by the square's central focal point, Nelson's Column ; the famous bronze lions didn't arrive until 1868, and the fountains - a real rarity in a London square - didn't take their present shape until the eve of World War II. As one of the few large public squares in London, Trafalgar Square has been both a tourist attraction and a focus for political demonstrations since the Chartists assembled here in 1848 before marching to Kennington Common. On a more festive note, the square is graced each December with a giant Christmas tree, donated by Norway in thanks for liberation from the Nazis, and on New Year's Eve , thousands of inebriates sing in the New Year. Stranded on a traffic island to the south of the column, and predating the entire square, is the equestrian statue of Charles I , erected shortly after the Restoration on the very spot where eight of those who had signed the king's death warrant were disembowelled. Charles's statue also marks the original site of the thirteenth-century Charing Cross , from where all distances from the capital are measured - a Victorian imitation now stands outside Charing Cross train station. The northeastern corner of the square is occupied by James Gibbs' church of St Martin-in-the-Fields ( www.stma rtin-in-the-fields.org), fronted by a magnificent Corinthian portico and topped by an elaborate, and distinctly unclassical, tower and steeple. Completed in 1726, the interior is purposefully simple, though the Italian plasterwork on the barrel vaulting is exceptionally rich; it's best appreciated while listening to one of the church's free lunchtime concerts. There's a licensed cafe in the roomy crypt, not to mention a shop, gallery and brass-rubbing centre (Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun noon-6pm).
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