Admiralty Arch is an office building in London, which has five arches providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall and Trafalgar Square.

It was designed by Sir Aston Webb (who he?), and completed in 1912. Webb also designed the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Victoria Monument (the statue of her in front of Buckingham Palace) and faced the main building of Buckingham Palace itself - so has an impressive London CV. Admiralty Arch adjoins the Old Admiralty Building, hence the name. The large concrete block still further is the Admiralty Citadel, the operations centre built in 1941 during the Second World War, to withstand a direct bomb-strike.

Admiralty Arch was commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother Queen Victoria, though he didn't live to see its completion. A Latin inscription along the top reads:

: ANNO : DECIMO : EDWARDI : SEPTIMI : REGIS :
: VICTORIÆ : REGINÆ : CIVES : GRATISSIMI : MDCCCCX :
(In the tenth year of King Edward VII, to Queen Victoria, from most grateful citizens, 1910)


The middle arch is only used for state occassions, but the other two large arches feed traffic in and out of The Mall and the two smaller arches are for pedestrians. The purpose of the building was to create a separation between the royal and state buildings on one side, and the heaving crowds of Trafalgar Square and London's West End on the other.

A famous feature of Admiralty Arch is its 'nose'. On the inside wall of the large central arch (on the right as you look down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace), there's a life-size nose. The nose sits at waist height for someone riding through the arch on a horse. Tradition apparently states that the nose is there in honour of the Duke of Wellington, who was reputed to have a large nose. Soldiers would rub Wellington's nose for good luck as they rode through the arch. Another cites that it represents Napoleon, so you could rub his nose in it - but both whiff strongly of urban myth. The dates don't add up, since both died 60-80 years before the building was completed. Although they were significant characters, Londoners had plenty of other notables to concern themselves with at the time. World War One was only three years away, after all.

Another explanation is that it's a spare for Nelson in nearby Trafalgar Square, but again Nelson's column predates the building by 70 years, I can't see them wanting to add a spare nose to another building, seventy years later.

The most likely explanation links to another story: The Seven Noses of Soho, which sounds more like an unpublished Tintin adventure. Apparently there are seven noses, similar to the one in Admiralty Arch dotted around the streets of Soho. If you find all of them, you will supposedly enjoy eternal wealth. One searcher showed how the seventh nose is the outline shape of Soho on the map (which really does smack of Tintin.) Except again, it's all urban myth (though the noses do exist, it's the legend that's fake). The Soho noses are attributable to sculptor Rick Buckley and are casts of his own nose, fixed to buildings between 1996-2005. However, there is nothing to confirm this other than similar mass rumour, Rick Buckley as a research subject evaporates under close inspection. There is one, though he appears to concentrate on video installations.

I think the nose in Admiralty Arch is a recent addition and probably fits into the Soho Seven, which aren't in fact confined to Soho at all (there's even an ear). Why they're there is still a mystery for now.

In 2000, the Cabinet Office shifted some of their departments into Admiralty Arch and from 2002 to 2006 it was the site of some extra-marital frolics, by then Deputy Prime Minister John 'Two-Jags' Prescott. After some downsizing of official residences, Dorneywood was replaced by a flat in Admiralty Arch for the Deputy PM. Prescott and his diary secretary Tracey Temple didn't so much sneak up to the flat, as to brazenly hold soirées there, with free-flowing wine and dancing. The affair was uncovered by Temple's boyfriend when he rummaged through her texts and later, photos appeared from one of their parties, once the whistle had been firmly blown (ahem).

What's nearby? There's no shortage of places to visit including: Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey, The National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, The Jewel Tower and The Churchill Museum.

Admiralty Arch, The Mall, London, SW1A 2BN

Nearest Tube: Charing Cross or Westminster.

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