Erection date: 2005
{Plaque at the base of the statue:}
Lord Nelson
Time is everything, five minutes make the difference between victory or defeat.
1758 - 1805
The sculptor Lesley Pover was commissioned by the Trafalgar Tavern to produce the statue for the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. It was unveiled by designer Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen. In 2012 there was a bungled attempt to remove the statue, (presumably to be sold for scrap) and it had to be removed for a year for repairs. The quotation is from Nelson himself.
Site: Lord Nelson - Greenwich (1 memorial)
SE10, Park Row, 27, Trafalgar Tavern
This pub is associated with a tradition of ministerial whitebait dinners which began in the late 18th century. The meal would take place at or near the end of the parliamentary session. It wasn't geographically fixed, having taken place in Dagenham, then Blackwall and then this pub in Greenwich. By the late 19th century it was annual, and scheduled for Trinity Monday. From Mike Rendell: "These political gatherings lasted until 1883 – when Prime Minister William Gladstone held the last one at the Trafalgar Tavern. Ministers were carried from Westminster across the river to Greenwich in specially decorated barges." Brewer's Dictionary also has information but says the dinners were still going in 1892, which is confusing, unless it's a typo and should read 1882.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
