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6 unusual facts about Wellington Statue


Matthew Cotes Wyatt

Wyatt also sculpted the enormous bronze equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington which originally stood on the top of the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner.

Rubens mare

Matthew Cotes Wyatt used Recovery as a model for the Duke of Wellington's deceased horse Copenhagen, when creating the Wellington Statue in Aldershot.

Wellington Statue, Aldershot

Many thought the statue out of proportion to the arch: its architect, Decimus Burton, especially disliked it, and left money in his will for the statue's removal.

In 1837 a Committee was formed under the chairmanship of the Duke of Rutland to raise sufficient funds for a memorial to Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington.

Local tradition says there is a bottle of Guinness and a packet of sandwiches sealed up inside the base, left by a forgetful workman called Albert Barber when the statue was moved from London to Aldershot.

Wellington Statue, Glasgow

In 2011 the Lonely Planet guide included the monument to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington in its list of the "top 10 most bizarre monuments on Earth", along with the Rocky Balboa statue in Žitište, Serbia and the Washington National Cathedral in the United States.


Hyde Park Corner

Originally, the arch was topped with an equestrian statue of the Duke (by Matthew Cotes Wyatt).


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