Horses Statues in Haymarket - horses, history, and Harrow

London has lots of equestrian (horseback) statues but one which I have seen several times from passing buses in the horses statue on the corner of Haymarket. Four horses.

Often from the bus you see the horses. Or when walking past on the other side of the road towards Trafalgar Square you see the horses, the base half obscured by tourists enjoying a photo opportunity underneath the massive statue.

I thought they were new. I googled horses and Piccadilly and was astonished to see in Wikipedia that they had been there since 1992 - more than twenty years ago!

When I talked about the horses to family, they immediately said, "Four horses of the Apocalypse?" No. That is from the bible.

These horses are the four horses of Helios, Greek god of the Sun. In those days you kept horses in pairs to pull large chariots.

From Wikipedia I checked Helios and discovered: "Helios was described as a handsome titan crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to earth-circling Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to the East at night. In the Homeric hymn to Helios, Helios is said to drive a golden chariot drawn by steeds (HH 31.14–15); and Pindar speaks of Helios's "fire-darting steeds" (Olympian Ode 7.71). Still later, the horses were given fiery names: Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegm."

A few paragraphs on, about Helios, up pops another story about the horses: The son borrows Dad's car, in this case a chariot, and can't control it. (So - what's new! 'Nothing new under the sun,'we say.

The horses are shown rearing up on their hind legs. That makes room for you to stand underneath for a photo with the legs forming a frame overhead.

The statue looks black. That is fitting to show black horses. Black will not show marks and rain like white horses. It was a surprise to me that the material is bronze.

The plaque underneath was a bit hard to read. But If you enlarge the picture you can see the details.

My research in Wikipedia revealed whole sections of tables of columns divided horizontally showing facts and photos about statues around London and historical statues in London by Borough. Also listed are organisations connected with plaques and monuments.

Still at the back of my mind is a hope that one day we will have statues to Mrs Beeton and Heath Robinson.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, photographer, author and speaker.