Until 2020, a bronze statue of British naval hero Vice Admiral
Horatio, Lord Nelson was a fixture of the Square on the west end. The statue in Bridgetown had been unveiled on 22 March 1813 to commemorate the anniversary of the British
Royal Navy's victory in the
Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and was erected approximately 27 years before the more famous
Nelson's Column in
London, which serves as the centrepiece of
Trafalgar Square. As a point of reference, the statue of Nelson served as the geographic centre of Bridgetown. Since the colonial period many distances on the island from Bridgetown have historically been measured from the base of Nelson's statue, so that the statue functioned as Barbados'
mile zero. The use of the Bajan Nelson statue as a centring point is similar to the London statue in the British capital; however, Trafalgar Square is adjacent to the actual historic and geographic centre of London, which is actually located, immediately to the east, in
Charing Cross. The monument which serves as London's exact centre is therefore not of Nelson, but the
equestrian statue of Charles I, at Charing Cross, facing down Whitehall, standing where the
Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross had previously stood before being moved to the Charing Cross railway station forecourt. Since 2020, the statue has been relocated to the
Barbados Museum. ==Gallery==