Horse Guards Parade is a large parade ground off Whitehall in central London. It is the site of the annual ceremonies of Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the monarch's official birthday, and the Beating Retreat.
Trooping the Colour at Horse Guards Parade in 1956
The Coldstream Guards on Parade at Horse Guards, by John Chapman, c. 1755
Horse Guards Parade with the London Eye Ferris wheel in the background
Panorama of Horse Guards Parade, from the northwest corner. North: Admiralty Citadel, Admiralty Extension building; east: Admiralty House (with a scaffold at its cornice level), Household Cavalry Museum, Horse Guards, Dover House; South: Cabinet Office, garden wall and trees of 10 Downing Street, Mountbatten Green and small part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; west: St James's Park (at foreground, centre) the Guards Memorial.
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square. The street is recognised as the centre of the Government of the United Kingdom and is lined with numerous departments and ministries, including the Ministry of Defence, Horse Guards and the Cabinet Office. Consequently, the name "Whitehall" is used as a metonym for the British civil service and government, and as the geographic name for the surrounding area.
Whitehall pictured in 2012, with The Cenotaph and Monument to the Women of World War II in the middle of the carriageway, and the Elizabeth Tower housing Big Ben in the background.
Whitehall, looking south in 1740: Inigo Jones' Banqueting House (1622) on the left, William Kent's Treasury buildings (1733–37) on the right, the Holbein Gate (1532, demolished 1759) at centre.
View of the Horse Guards Building from Whitehall, showing the three arches that link it to Horse Guards Parade
Whitehall, looking north in 1953, with the Earl Haig Memorial in the middle of the carriageway.
