Where mayors greeted monarchs
Temple Bar is an imposing entrance to Paternoster Square and an embellishment to the surroundings of St Paul’s Cathedral, but its significance was greater in its original location near the Temple Church, on the road that connected royal Westminster and the City of London. At the west gate (»bar«) of the City, the lord mayor greeted kings and queens when they paid official visits to the City. In a ceremony that still takes place occasionally, the monarch asked for permission to pass through, and received the sword of state as a token of loyalty.
By the year 1300 at the latest, a wooden gate stood on the site. In 1672 it was replaced by a new one made of the best Portland limestone – the one that is now on Paternoster Square. The façades, possibly designed by Sir Christopher Wren, are adorned by statues of kings of the Stuart dynasty: James I and his queen, Anne of Denmark, Charles I and Charles II, shown in theatrical Baroque poses with swirling robes. After the deposition of the Stuart king James II, the heads of traitors who had plotted to restore this very dynasty were placed on spikes on top of the gate.
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Address Paternoster Square, EC4M 7DX | Public Transport St Paul’s (Central Line) | Tip Although some new bank towers are higher, the best way to see the City of London from above is to climb the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral (Mon–Sat from 9.30am, last admission 4.15pm).
As the London traffic increased, Temple Bar became a hindrance and was taken down stone by stone in 1878. The plan to find a more suitable site met with no success, so the brewer Henry Meux was allowed to erect the gate in the grounds of his country house, Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire. It stayed there for over a century, but was never forgotten, not least because a monument crowned by a superb griffin marked and still marks its old location in the middle of the road at the place where Fleet Street meets The Strand. In 2004, the remodelling of Paternoster Square finally provided an opportunity to bring back the gate. Its weathered masonry was restored, some coats of arms newly carved, and Temple Bar once again fulfils its old function of an entrance.
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