The Victorian monument was designed by Edward Middleton Barry, also the architect of the railway station, and includes multiple statues of Queen Eleanor by the sculptor Thomas Earp.

It is located 200 metres (220 yd) northeast of the original site of the Charing Cross (destroyed in 1647), which is now occupied by Hubert Le Sueur's equestrian statue of Charles I, installed in 1675; both are along the Strand roadway.

Barry based the memorial on the three surviving drawings of the Charing Cross, in the Bodleian Library, the British Museum and the collection of the Royal Society of Antiquaries.

[2] In this search for precedents Barry was assisted by his fellow architect Arthur Ashpitel.

[3] The coats of arms of England, León, Castile and Ponthieu appear on the monument.