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A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.
An empty tomb built for one parade, and kept because the country would not give it up.
Government & ParliamentIdeas & memoryFree to enter
Also in Royal London and Monuments & Ruins.
Edwin Lutyens ran up the first Cenotaph in wood and plaster for the Peace Day parade of July 1919. The response was so overwhelming that a permanent one in Portland stone followed, unveiled on 11 November 1920 as the Unknown Warrior was buried in Westminster Abbey; more than a million people came to it in the week that followed. Lutyens refused soldiers, weapons and victory, and left out Christian symbols so that the dead of every faith across the empire were included. Almost nothing about it is straight: the vertical faces lean very slightly inward and would meet about a thousand feet above Whitehall. Cenotaph is Greek for empty tomb.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.