National Heroes Square

National Heroes Square, formerly Trafalgar Square, is located in Bridgetown, the capital and principal commercial centre of the island-nation of Barbados. The square lies along Upper Broad Street and is on the northern shore of the Careenage ("Constitution River"), found directly in the centre of Bridgetown.
Name
The current name of National Heroes Square was adopted on 22 April 1999 and officially took effect on 28 April 1999.[1] The name refers to the Barbadian National Heroes.
In 2009, the government of David Thompson opened up a proposal to rename the circle found in the Historic Landmark square as "Parliament Circle",[1] and to completely redevelop and reconfigure the Square's layout.
Statue of Lord Nelson
A fixture of the Square on the west-end included a bronze statue of British naval hero Vice Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson. The statue in Bridgetown was unveiled on 22 March 1813 to commemorate the anniversary of the British Royal Navy's victory in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The local statue of Lord Nelson in Bridgetown was erected approximately 27 years before the more famous Nelson's Column in London, which serves as the centrepiece of Trafalgar Square.
As a point of reference, the statue of Nelson served as the geographic centre of Bridgetown. Since the colonial period many distances on the island from Bridgetown have historically been measured from the base of Nelson's statue, so that the statue functioned as Barbados' mile zero.[2] The use of the Bajan Nelson statue as a centring point is similar to the London statue in the British Capital; however Trafalgar Square is adjacent to the actual historic and geographic centre of London, which is actually located, immediately to the east, in Charing Cross. The monument which serves as London's exact centre is therefore not of Nelson, but the equestrian statue of Charles I, at Charing Cross, facing down Whitehall, standing where the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross had previously stood before being moved to the Charing Cross railway station forecourt.
Discover more about Statue of Lord Nelson related topics
Gallery
View of the west wing of the Barbados Parliament Building from National Heroes Square.
Lord Nelson's statue in Barbados, West Indies, November 2000 (close-up).
Lord Nelson's statue in Barbados, West Indies, November 2000.
Source: "National Heroes Square", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, November 28th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Heroes_Square.
Further Reading

Battle of Trafalgar

Charing Cross
Bridgetown

Trafalgar Square
Whitehall
Nelson's Column

Parishes of Barbados

Trafalgar Day

Confederation Park

Index of Barbados-related articles

Statue of Horatio Nelson, Birmingham

Monuments and memorials to Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Nelson's Column, Montreal

Fourth plinth

Cathedral Church of Saint Michael and All Angels

Statue of Nelson Mandela, Parliament Square

Statue of Henry Havelock, Trafalgar Square

List of public art in Trafalgar Square and the vicinity
References
- ^ The Trafalgar Square (Change of Name) Act, CARICOM Law
- ^ Carrington, Sean (2007). A~Z of Barbados Heritage. Macmillan Caribbean Publishers Limited. p. 135. ISBN 0-333-92068-6.
Categories
- 1813 establishments in the British Empire
- All articles with dead external links
- All stub articles
- Articles with dead external links from February 2018
- Articles with permanently dead external links
- Articles with short description
- Barbados geography stubs
- Buildings and structures in Bridgetown
- Coordinates on Wikidata
- National squares
- Short description matches Wikidata
- Squares in Barbados
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