Cenotaph, Whitehall

Cenotaph, Whitehall, memorial to those killed in World War I, erected in 1920 in Whitehall, near the Houses of Parliament, in central London. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is an austere structure, made from a block of stone; its subtle visual power owes much to the fact that it has no vertical or horizontal lines: the apparent horizontals are convex, in geometrical terms being the arcs of circles with a common centre about 275 m (900 ft) below ground; the apparent verticals converge at a point about 300 m (1,000 ft) above ground. This optical device is derived from the design of the Parthenon. Aside from wreaths laid at the foot of the monument, fixed flags are its only ornamentation. The Cenotaph is the focal point of the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in honour of the dead of both World Wars and other more recent conflicts.