Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross, London

The Eleanor crosses were a line of 12 crosses erected by Edward I in memory of his wife Eleanor of Castile marking the nightly resting places of her body from Lincoln back to London.

The cross at Charing Cross was in what was then the Royal Mews and and was built by the sculptor Master Alexander of Abingdon.

The original cross stood at the top of Whitehall, not here. It was destroyed on the orders of Parliament in 1647 after the Civil War. In 1675 after the Restoration it was replaced by the equestrian statue of Charles I which stands on the south side of Trafalgar Square.

This cross is a replacement erected in 1865 commissioned by the South Eastern Railway in front of their new Charing Cross Hotel. This was designed by E. M. Barry, the architect of the Hotel.

To the left can be seen the spire of St Martin-in-the Fields built in 1724 designed by James Gibbs, and to the right the front of Coutts Bank HQ at 440 Strand.