The Liberty Clock is a mechanical clock that was completed in . The clock forms part of, and protrudes from, the three storey archway that spans the northern end of the

Kingly Street Kingly Street is a street in London's Soho district. It runs north to south from Liberty's and Foubert's Place to Beak Street, in parallel to, and between, Regent Street and Carnaby Street. It was known as King Street until 1906. The Bag O'N ...

mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

, Central London. The archway itself is part of the Western end of the

Great Marlborough Street Great Marlborough Street is a thoroughfare in Soho, Central London. It runs east of Regent Street past Carnaby Street towards Noel Street. Originally part of the Millfield estate south of Tyburn Road (now Oxford Street), the street was named ...

Liberty department store. The entire building was a design by Edwin T. Hall and his son Edwin S. Hall in 1922 and is an example of the

Tudor revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

that was quite fashionable in late nineteenth and early twentieth century architecture.

Design

The clock face is round and slightly recessed into the stonework. It is a deep blue in colour and is decorated by concentric gold bands either side of the numbering that runs around the perimeter of the face. There is a depiction of the radiant sun, also in gold, that occupies the bulk of the centre of the face. The clock is numbered with similarly golden, radially oriented Roman numerals in an otherwise plain

serif typeface In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ...

. The hands are ornate, coloured gold and feature deep blue insets. Its surrounds are masonry and stand proud of the masonry portion of the archway with relief panels either side. Set into the relief panels are stone sculptures of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s. The bird on the left panel, which depicts

dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's hori ...

and daylight, is a

cockerel The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

with the sunrise behind it. The nocturnal

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

on the right panel also features the

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and depicts

night Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends ...

. Around the clock face, in each of the four corners, are winged heads representing each of the four winds. Above the clock itself is an opening in the stone that houses, and provides shelter for, a mechanical depiction of

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...

engaging the dragon. This activates at fifteen minute intervals, ending on the hour with the dragon being 'slain'. Under the clock face, in golden

upper case Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...

letters, is the statement "No minute gone comes ever back again take heed and see ye nothing do in vain".

Maintenance

The clock and the mechanical display above were fully restored in 2010 by

Gillett & Johnston Gillett & Johnston was a clockmaker and bell foundry based in Croydon, England from 1844 until 1957. Between 1844 and 1950, over 14,000 tower clocks were made at the works. The company's most successful and prominent period of activity as a be ...

Influences

The clock has self evidently influenced the design of the archway and clock that presides over the Northern entrance to

London Court London Court is a three and four-level open-roofed shopping arcade located in the central business district in Perth, Western Australia. It was built in 1937 by wealthy gold financier and businessman Claude de Bernales for residential and commer ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Western Australia; which was constructed over ten years later in a similar style. It bears the exact same phrase underneath and also shows a mechanised animation above, but of jousting horses; a mechanised animation of Saint George and the dragon is present, but at the southern end of the mall.

References

Citations {{Portal bar, Roads, London transport, London Streets in the City of Westminster Streets in Soho Individual clocks in England 1925 establishments in England 1925 in London Tudor Revival architecture in England