Originally known during the Spanish period as Plaza Mayor (English: Main Square) (according to Alonso Hernández del Portillo in his work titled Historia de la Muy Noble y Más Leal Ciudad de Gibraltar −English: History of the Very Noble and Most Loyal City of Gibraltar)[1] or Gran Plaza (English: Great Square)[3] and afterwards as the Alameda[1] (Spanish for an avenue lined with poplars, not to be confused with the Alameda Gardens), it opened out from the west of the Calle Real (now Main Street).

[3][4] In 1704, after the city's capture by an Anglo-Dutch fleet, the British converted the hospital and chapel of La Santa Misericordia into a debtors' prison.

About the same time, in 1819,[7] on the opposite side of the square, Aaron Cardozo, a prosperous merchant of Jewish Portuguese descent, built the grandest private mansion ever seen in Gibraltar.

However, as he had been a close friend of Horatio Nelson and had supplied his fleet, he was eventually granted a site to build a house in the Alameda on the condition that it be "an ornament" to the square.

It was bought in 1874 by Pablo Antonio Larios, a wealthy businessman and banker, Gibraltarian-born and member of a Spanish family, who completely refurbished the building.

[7] In 1922, his son Pablo Larios, Marquis of Marzales, sold the building to the Gibraltar colonial authorities, which intended to turn it into a post office.

[7] It was eventually re-erected on the Line Wall against Zoca Flank some 20 metres (66 ft) to the northwest of its original location [10] (four lion-headed vents were carved in the low part of the fountain, representing war, pestilence, death and peace).

[10] In 1869, a new fountain was erected by the Sanitary Commission, fed from wells in the isthmus that links The Rock with Spain to supply drinking water.

[13] An opportunity for their removal soon arose when 15 British cargo vessels arrived at Casablanca under Commodore Crichton, repatriating French servicemen rescued from Dunkirk.

[13] Although Crichton could not clean and restock his ships (and contrary to British Admiralty orders which forbade the taking on of evacuees), he eventually agreed to do so.

After receiving instructions from London, a landing was allowed as long as the evacuees returned when other ships arrived, and by 13 July the re-evacuation had been completed.

In September 1963, Chief Minister Joshua Hassan, and Leader of the Opposition Peter Isola, travelled to New York City to intervene before the United Nations Decolonisation Committee as "petitioners" from Gibraltar.

Their homecoming took place on 24 September 1963 and was commemorated in the painting The Triumphal Welcome depicting the scene at John Mackintosh Square, authored by local artist Ambrose Avellano.

The Gibraltar National Day Declaration is also read, and a symbolic release of 30,000 red and white balloons from the roof of the Parliament Building follows.

[17] Chief Minister Peter Caruana hailed her win as a "wonderful achievement for her and for Gibraltar" and promised a "homecoming fit for a queen".