Apsley House and Wellington Arch

Apsley House was bought by the Duke of Wellington as his town residence with part of the money given to him by a grateful nation after his defeat of Napoleon. A large part of the art collection was given by the King of Spain.  The collection was rescued at the end of the Peninsular Wars.  Wellington was aware of their value (they included works by Titian, Rubens and many more) but the King graciously let Wellington keep the paintings.

Other European countries were also very grateful to Wellington for helping to end the war. They almost competed to see who could give the best “thank you” present.  There are wonderful dinner services by Sèvres and Meissen and of course silver. There is a beautiful silver centre piece for the forty seater dining room table. It ran the whole length of the table and was donated by the Portuguese. We then walked over to the Wellington Arch.

The Arch was built in 1828 and has been moved a couple of times to accommodate the traffic. The “Triumph” on the top of the Arch was not placed there until 1912. In its time the Arch has been a police station and a park-keepers residence. 

Eloise Clark - Chairman