Trafalgar Square

Where it sits. Trafalgar Square occupies the hinge of central London, in the City of Westminster, where Whitehall, the Strand, Charing Cross Road, the Mall and Pall Mall all converge. Distances from London have been measured from Charing Cross, just to its south, since the 1200s, so in a literal cartographic sense this is the centre of the country. The square is faced by the National Gallery along its north side, the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields at its north-east corner, and Canada House and South Africa House on the west and east. Charing Cross station sits immediately south-east; Leicester Square, Embankment and Piccadilly Circus are each a few minutes' walk.

The story behind it. The site was occupied by the King's Mews until George IV moved the royal horses to Buckingham Palace, freeing the ground for redevelopment by John Nash. Progress stalled after Nash died in 1835 and the square did not open until 1844. It commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, fought on 21 October 1805 off Cape Trafalgar in south-west Spain, where the Royal Navy defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain; the name was not applied until 1835. Nelson's Column, 169 feet tall, was raised in the centre, flanked later by Landseer's bronze lions. The equestrian statue of Charles I stands to the south on the site of the original Charing Cross. The north-west plinth stood empty for a century and a half and since 1999 has hosted the Fourth Plinth programme of rotating contemporary commissions, which has become one of the most watched public-art slots in Europe.

A stage for the country. The square has been London's default protest ground since Bloody Sunday in 1887, and has hosted the culmination of the first Aldermaston March, anti-war demonstrations and climate campaigns. It was also a target: suffragettes planted a bomb outside the National Gallery on 15 May 1913 that failed to detonate, and on 4 April 1914 a bomb exploded inside St Martin-in-the-Fields, blowing out windows and starting a fire. In the modern era the square doubles as a national living room — 12,000 people watched England's 2002 World Cup quarter-final on screens here, and it took the victory celebrations for the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 2005 Ashes. Norway has donated a Christmas tree every year since 1947 in thanks for British support during the Second World War; it stands for twelve days either side of Christmas Day. The feral pigeons that once defined the place were removed in the early 21st century.

On screen. As an instantly legible shorthand for London, Trafalgar Square has been filmed continuously for seventy years. It featured heavily during the Swinging London period of the late 1960s, appearing in The Avengers, Casino Royale, Doctor Who and The Ipcress File, and it was used for several sketches and a cartoon backdrop in Monty Python's Flying Circus. John Wayne's only British-produced film, Brannigan (1975), used the square's surroundings during its London shoot. Richard Curtis filmed here for Love Actually (2003). Alfonso Cuarón shot in the square for Children of Men (2006), using London's most recognisable sites against the film's degraded future — the same production that turned Battersea Power Station into a state art bunker. In July 2011, with building works blocking Leicester Square, the square hosted a film premiere for the first time, laying a 0.75-mile red carpet between the two squares; fans camped out for three days in heavy rain.

What you actually see today. The square was remodelled in 2003: the north side road was closed and replaced with a wide flight of steps up to the National Gallery terrace, which transformed it from a traffic island into somewhere you can actually stand. Two fountains, installed in their present form in 1939 to designs by Edwin Lutyens, are floodlit after dark. Look for the small details rather than the obvious ones — the imperial standards of length set into the wall of the terrace, the plinth-mounted busts of admirals along the north wall, and Britain's smallest police station built into a lamp-post-like structure in the south-east corner. The National Gallery is free and holds one of the world's great collections of Western painting; St Martin-in-the-Fields runs a celebrated concert programme and a café in its crypt.

Getting there and timing. Charing Cross is the closest station and the exit brings you out at the square's south-east corner. It is busy from mid-morning until late every day of the year; before 8am you can photograph the column and the lions without crowds, and the light on the National Gallery portico is best early. New Year's Eve remains the square's biggest night, and it is a focal point for Chinese New Year, Diwali, St Patrick's Day and Pride events through the year. The square is level, paved and step-free from the Whitehall side, with ramped access at the eastern end of the terrace; the steps on the north side have a lift alongside them.