London's last surviving City gate, once crowned with the heads of traitors. This watercolour captures Temple Bar, Sir Christopher Wren's Portland stone arch, now standing at the entrance to Paternoster Square beside St Paul's Cathedral.
Built in 1670–72 to replace an earlier timber gatehouse, the Bar marked the western boundary between the City of London and Westminster, with a wide central arch for traffic flanked by two narrower pedestrian arches. Niches on either side hold statues of Charles I and II on one face and James I and Queen Anne of Denmark on the other, celebrating the restored Stuart monarchy. Above the main arch, a row of iron spikes once displayed the severed heads of traitors throughout the 18th century — the first being Thomas Armstrong in 1683, executed for his role in the Rye House Plot to assassinate Charles II.
The gate was dismantled in 1878 to widen Fleet Street, its 2,700 numbered stones stored and later re-erected at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire, before being bought back by the Temple Bar Trust for £1 and returned to the City in 2004 after a £3 million restoration.
Interesting facts...
The gate was dismantled in just 11 days in 1878, with all 2,700 stones carefully numbered and stored, on the condition that they be re-erected elsewhere in London, a promise that took 126 years to fulfil.
Sir Henry Bruce Meux bought the stones in 1880 and rebuilt the gate as the entrance to his Hertfordshire estate, Theobalds Park, where it stood for over a century. The gate's return was finally achieved in 2004, when it was re-erected in Paternoster Square next to St Paul's Cathedral, at a cost of over £3 million funded by the City of London, the Temple Bar Trust, and several livery companies.
Wren's design was influenced by the famous Parisian church facade of St Etienne du Mont, and was built in the high classical manner with Portland stone. The gate marked the boundary between the City of London and Westminster, and royal processions would stop here to be greeted by the Lord Mayor before entering the City. A Temple Bar Memorial, topped with a dragon symbol of London and containing statues of Queen Victoria and Edward VII, now marks the gate's original location on Fleet Street.
Location: Paternoster Square, City of London, EC4M 7DX
