Guidebook: Wellington Arch

London's two triumphal arches, the Wellington Arch and the Marble Arch, have remarkable parallel histories. Both were designed and built in the 1820s as grand entrances to Buckingham Palace, to commemorate victory over Napoleonic France, and both suffered the later fate of removal from their original positions, eventually to become marooned on islands amid a sea of traffic, where their architectural and sculptural excellence has sometimes been overlooked.