Plaque: The Waterloo Way - Grosvenor Square
Erection date: 21/6/2015
{In a small circle at the top:}
The New Waterloo Dispatch, 1815 - 2015
The Waterloo Way, 44 Grosvenor Square
On Sunday 18th June 1815 the allied armies under the command of the Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon Boneparte's army at the Battle of Waterloo, eight miles south of Brussels in Belgium. This victory was a defining moment in European history.
The first official news of the victory in Britain was announced here on 21st June 1815.
The official dispatch was carried to England by the Honourabe Major Henry Percy, 14th Light Dragoons, an aide de camp to the Duke of Wellington. He travelled by post chaise from Brussels to Ostend where he embarked in His Majesty's Ship Peruvian for England. Landing at Broadstairs he travelled by post chaise to London and delivered the Duke of Wellington's dispatch to the Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool, and Secretary of State for War, the Earl of Bathurst, who were dining with the Cabinet at 44 Grosvenor Square, then the home of the Earl of Harrowby, Lord President of the Council.
Broadstairs ¦ Sarre ¦ Canterbury ¦ Faversham ¦ Sittingbourne ¦ Rochester ¦ Dartford ¦ Grosvenor Square ¦ St James's Square
Unveiled by the Duke of Westminster KG, CB, CVO, OBE, TD, CD, DL On 21 June 2015 to inaugurate The Waterloo Way from Brussels to London and in honour of all those who fought at Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
This is a small plaque, rather cheap-looking, in contrast to the substantial well-polished brass plaque on the other side of the lobby instructing customers where to go to get a taxi.
Site: The Waterloo Way - Grosvenor Square (1 memorial)
W1, Grosvenor Square, 44, Millennium Hotel
We took our photo from the garden side of the Diplomatic Gates. The plaque is in the lobby, where the lady in the red coat seems to be going.
We wonder if Wednesday cabinet dinners at the Harrowbys' were regular events because a few years later the Cato Street conspirators plotted to murder the whole cabinet, as they dined here on another Wednesday.
Built c. 1727, in 1815 the house on this site, numbered 39 at the time (renumbered as 44 in 1888) was the home of Lord Harrowby. British History Online have a quite detailed history of the house, referring to this plate of the frontage and to this splendid mural, now at the V&A. The house was demolished in 1967-8 and replaced. What?! That classical facade was erected in the 1960s? Yep, Wikipedia confirms this and gives the architect as the modernist Richard Seifert. Its back elevation on Adam's Row, and presumably all the interior, is more Seifert's style.
See the Waterloo Way for the story of the Dispatch.
