The Project
The following work is planned:
– the demolition of the current visitors' centre, the adjacent Wellington café, the tourist hotel and the Hôtel de la Paix and their annexes. The Hôtel du Museum will be transformed in order to accommodate the group carrying out the restoration, with a brasserie, restaurant and reception rooms.
– the Route du Lion and Rue de la Croix will be narrowed and restricted to pedestrian access only.
– restoration of the ground surface.
– parking facilities will be moved to the Brussels ring road, so that they are out of sight behind Lion's mound.
– the transformation of two hectares into agricultural land.
– the construction of a memorial under the site of the current Hussard car park and Hotel de la Paix.
A gentle ramp leading from the new car parks is to provide access to the Memorial, as will a flight of steps near the Panorama of the battle. The ramp will be bordered by a wall and bear the names of all the regiments, Allied and French, who participated in the different combats on 18 June, 1815. The ramp will descend five metres to the reception lobby, itself lit by a huge patio giving a new view of the Panorama. A tunnel will pass under the Chemin des vertes Bornes, linking the two structures.
Work already completed
The following work has already been carried out:
– General Picton's plaque and that of the 27th Foot (Inniskillings) were restored in 2012 by the Waterloo Committee.
– Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Gordon's column has been restored. The new monument will be accessible as of spring 2013.
– The buildings' committee have also restored the Monument to the Belgians (it is estimated that 7,000 Belgians took part in the battle, in the allied camp as well as the French). The ironwork has been regilded and the overgrowth has been removed.
– The dovecote and the frontage of the Mont-Saint-Jean farm have also been restored. The farm is testament to the former hamlet of the same name, and served as a makeshift hospital for thousands of soldiers. The dovecote had collapsed in the 1990s.
– The two hotels (the Hôtel des Touristes and the Hôtel de la Paix) have been pulled down and the Memorial is under construction.
– The tunnel linking the future Memorial to the Panorama has been constructed and covered over.
More information. (external link)
M. de Bruchard, tr. Andrew Miles ed. P.H.
Text based on an article by Dominique Timmermans in the Bulletin d'informations de l'Association pour la Conservation des Monuments Napoléoniens, n.14, July-December 2012