Editing Charing Cross (section)

===Civil war removal===
[[File:Charing Cross Station 02.jpg|thumb|The [[Victorian era|Victorian]] replacement of the original [[Eleanor Cross]] 200 metres (200 yards) away, along the Strand in front of Charing Cross Station/Hotel. The area derives its name from the original monument destroyed by Parliament in the 1600s; the memorial replacement dates from the 1800s.]]
The Eleanor Cross was pulled down, by order of Parliament, in 1647, at the time of the [[English Civil War]], becoming the subject of a popular [[Cavalier|Royalist]] [[ballad]]:

{{Blockquote|<poem>Methinks the common-council shou'd
Of it have taken pity,
'Cause, good old cross, it always stood
So firmly in the city.
Since crosses you so much disdain,
Faith, if I were you,
For fear the King should rule again,
I'd pull down [[Tyburn|Tiburn]] too.</poem>
|<small>Extract from "The Downfall of Charing Cross"</small><ref>Alan Brooke and David Brandon (2004). ''Tyburn: London's Fatal Tree''. Stroud, Sutton: 238</ref>}}

At [[Stuart Restoration|the Restoration]] (1660 or shortly after) eight of the [[List of regicides of Charles I|regicide]]s were executed here, including the notable [[Fifth Monarchist]], Colonel [[Thomas Harrison (soldier)|Thomas Harrison]].<ref>Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (1983) ''[[The London Encyclopaedia]]'': 138</ref> A statue of Charles I was, likewise in Charles II's reign, erected on the site. This had been made in 1633 by [[Hubert Le Sueur]], in the reign of Charles I, but in 1649 Parliament ordered a man to destroy it; however he instead hid it and brought it back to the new King, Charles II (Charles I's son), and his Parliament who had the statue erected here in 1675.<ref>Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (1983) ''[[The London Encyclopaedia]]'': 815</ref>

[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 062 - Pillory, Charing Cross edited.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.3|The Pillory at Charing Cross (1809). The dark equestrian statue is the junction centrepiece (marker). This is a drawing by [[Augustus Pugin]] and [[Thomas Rowlandson]] for [[Rudolph Ackermann]]'s ''Microcosm of London'' (1808&ndash;11).]]

A prominent [[pillory]], where malefactors were publicly flogged, stood alongside for centuries.<ref>Arthur Groom (1928)'' Old London Coaching Inns and Their Successors'': 3</ref> About 200 yards to the east was the [[Hungerford Market]], established at the end of the 16th century; and to the north was the [[King's Mews]], or Royal Mews, the stables for the Palace of Whitehall and thus the King's own presence at the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster). The whole area of the broad pavements of what was a three-way main junction with private (stables) turn-off was a popular place of street entertainment. [[Samuel Pepys]] records in his diaries visiting the taverns and watching the entertainments and executions that were held there.<ref>''Pepys Diary'' – frequent visits between 1660–69. Particularly 13 October 1660 – for his account of the execution of Harrison.</ref> This was combined with the south of the mews when Trafalgar Square was built on the site in 1832, the rest of the stable yard becoming the National Gallery primarily.

A major London coaching inn, the "Golden Cross" – first mentioned in 1643 – faced this junction. From here, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, coaches linked variously terminuses of: [[Dover]], [[Brighton]], [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], Bristol, [[Cambridge]], [[Holyhead]] and [[York]]. The inn features in ''[[Sketches by Boz]]'', ''[[David Copperfield (novel)|David Copperfield]]'' and ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]]. In the latter, the dangers to public safety of the quite low archway to access the inn's coaching yard were memorably pointed out by [[Mr Jingle]]:
<blockquote>"Heads, heads – take care of your heads", cried the loquacious stranger as they came out under the low archway which in those days formed the entrance to the coachyard. "Terrible place – dangerous work – other day – five children – mother – tall lady, eating sandwiches – forgot the arch – crash – knock – children look round – mother's head off – sandwich in her hand – no mouth to put it in – head of family off."</blockquote>

The story echoes an accident of 11 April 1800, when the Chatham and Rochester coach was emerging from the gateway of the Golden Cross, and "a young woman, sitting on the top, threw her head back, to prevent her striking against the beam; but there being so much luggage on the roof of the coach as to hinder her laying herself sufficiently back, it caught her face, and tore the flesh in a dreadful manner."<ref>''The Daily Register''. April 1800</ref>

The inn and its yard, pillory, and what remained of the Royal Mews, made way for Trafalgar Square, and a new Golden Cross Hotel was built in the 1830s on the triangular block fronted by [[South Africa House]]. A nod to this is made by some offices on the Strand, in a building named Golden Cross House.