Temple Bar was the principal ceremonial entrance to the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

from the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...

. In the Middle Ages, London expanded city jurisdiction beyond its walls to gates, called 'bars', which were erected across thoroughfares. To the west of the City of London, the bar was located adjacent to the area known as the

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

. Temple Bar was situated on the historic royal ceremonial route from the Palace of the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

to the old Palace of Westminster, the two chief residences of the medieval English monarchs, and from Westminster to

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. The road east of the bar within the city was

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

, while the road to the west, in Westminster, was The Strand. At the bar, the Corporation of the City of London erected a barrier to regulate trade into the city. The 19th century

Royal Courts of Justice The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...

are located to its north, having been moved from

Westminster Hall Westminster Hall is a medieval great hall which is part of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. It was erected in 1097 for William II (William Rufus), at which point it was the largest hall in Europe. The building has had various functio ...

. To its south is

Temple Church The Temple Church, a royal peculiar in the Church of England, is a church in the Inner Temple, Inner and Middle Temple, Middle Temple, London, Temples located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar for their En ...

, along with the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

and

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

Inns of Court. As the most important entrance to the City of London from Westminster, it was formerly long the custom for the monarch to halt at the Temple Bar before entering the City of London, in order for the Lord Mayor to offer the corporation's pearl-encrusted Sword of State as a token of loyalty. 'Temple Bar' strictly refers to a notional bar or barrier across the route near The Temple precinct, but it is also used to refer to the 17th-century ornamental,

English Baroque English Baroque is a term used to refer to modes of English architecture that paralleled Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and roughly 1720, when the flamboyant and dramatic qualities of Baroque ...

arched gateway building attributed to

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

, which spanned the roadway at the bar for two centuries. After Wren's gateway was removed in 1878, the Temple Bar Memorial topped by a dragon symbol of London, and containing statues of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

and

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second child ...

, was erected to mark the location. Wren's archway was preserved and was re-erected in 2004 within the City of London, in a redeveloped Paternoster Square next to St Paul's Cathedral. In September 2022, the preserved Wren gateway and an adjacent building were officially opened by the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester ( ) is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curre ...

as the home of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects.

Background

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, the authority of the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

reached beyond the city's ancient defensive walls in several places, known as the Liberties of London. To regulate trade into the city, barriers were erected on the major entrance routes wherever the true boundary was a substantial distance from the nearest ancient gatehouse in the walls. Temple Bar was the most used of these, since traffic between the City of London (England's prime commercial centre) and the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

(the political centre) passed through it. It was located where Fleet Street now meets The Strand, which is outside London's old boundary wall. Its name derives from the

, adjoining to the south, which has given its name to a wider area south of Fleet Street, the Temple, once belonging to the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

but now home to two of the legal profession's

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court: Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple, and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have s ...

, and within the city's ancient boundaries. The historic ceremony of the monarch halting at Temple Bar and being met by the Lord Mayor has often featured in art and literature. It is commented on in televised coverage of modern-day royal ceremonial processions.

History

City jurisdiction and The Temple

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

bar at The Temple is first mentioned in 1293 and was probably only a chain or bar between a row of posts. More substantial structures with arches followed. After the

Battle of Evesham The Battle of Evesham (4 August 1265) was one of the two main battles of 13th century England's Second Barons' War. It marked the defeat of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and the rebellious barons by the future King Edward I, who led t ...

of 1265, Prince Edward punished the rebellious Londoners, who had befriended Simon de Montfort, by taking away all their street chains and bars, and storing them in the

.Thornbury, Walter. "Temple Bar", ''Old and New London'', Vol. 1. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878. pp.22-31
British History Online. Web. 21 July 2015 By 1351, a timber archway had been built housing a small prison above it. The earliest known documentary and historical notice of Temple Bar is in 1327, concerning a hearing before the mayor regarding a right of way in the area. In 1384, Richard II granted a licence for paving the Strand Street from Temple Bar to the

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

, and collecting tolls to cover the expense. On 5 November 1422, the corpse of Henry V was borne to Westminster Abbey by the chief citizens and nobles, and every doorway from Southwark to Temple Bar had a torch-bearer. In 1503 the hearse of

Elizabeth of York Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII of England, Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death in 1503. She was the daughter of King E ...

, queen of Henry VII, halted at Temple Bar, on its way from the Tower to Westminster, and at the Bar the Abbots of Westminster and Bermondsey blessed the corpse, and the Earl of Derby and a large company of nobles joined the funeral procession.

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...

passed through the Bar on 31 May 1534, the day before her coronation, on her way to the Tower. On that occasion Temple Bar was new painted and repaired, and near it stood singing men and children—the Fleet Street conduit all the time running claret. In 1554, Thomas Wyatt led an uprising in opposition to Queen Mary I's proposed marriage to

Philip II of Spain Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...

. When he had fought his way down Piccadilly to The Strand, Temple Bar was thrown open to him, or forced open by him; but when he had been repulsed at Ludgate he was hemmed in by cavalry at Temple Bar, where he surrendered. This revolt persuaded the government to go through with the execution of

Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 12 February 1554), also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage, and nicknamed as the "Nine Days Queen", was an English noblewoman who was proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland on 10 July 1553 and reigned ...

. The notable Scottish bookseller Andrew Millar owned his first London shop at Temple Bar, taken over from the ownership of James McEuen in 1728, to whom Millar had been apprenticed.

Wren's Temple Bar Gate

Although the then existing Bar Gate at the Temple escaped damage by the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

of 1666, it was decided to rebuild it as part of the general improvement works made throughout the city after that devastating event. Commissioned by King Charles II, and attributed to Sir

, the fine arch of Portland stone was constructed between 1669 and 1672, by Thomas Knight, the City Mason, and Joshua Marshall, Master of the Mason's Company and King's Master Mason, while John Bushnell carved the statues. Rusticated, it is a two-story structure consisting of one wide central arch for the road traffic, flanked on both sides by narrower arches for pedestrians. On the upper part, four

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

s celebrate the 1660 Restoration of the Stuart monarchy: in its original setting, on the west side King Charles II is shown with his father King Charles I whose parents King James I and

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I. She was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and List of English royal consorts, Queen of Engl ...

are depicted on the east side. During the 18th century the heads of convicted traitors were frequently mounted on pikes and exhibited on the roof, as was the case on

London Bridge The name "London Bridge" refers to several historic crossings that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark in central London since Roman Britain, Roman times. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 197 ...

. The other seven principal gateways to London, ( Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate,

Cripplegate Cripplegate was a city gate, gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London, England. The Cripplegate gate lent its name to the Cripplegate Wards of the City of London, ward of the City, which encompasses the area where the gat ...

, Moorgate,

Bishopsgate Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate's name is traditionally attributed to Earconwald, who was Bishop of London in the 7th century. It was first built in Roman times and marked the beginning o ...

and

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

) were all demolished in the 1760s, but Temple Bar remained despite its impediment to the ever-growing traffic. The upper-storey room was leased to the neighbouring banking house of

Child & Co Child & Co. is a historic private bank in the United Kingdom, later integrated into the Royal Bank of Scotland, RBS division of the NatWest Group. The bank operated from its long-standing premises at 1 Fleet Street, on the western edge of the C ...

for storage of records. In the 1853 novel, ''Bleak House'',

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

described it as "that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation" (the City of London corporation). It was also the subject of jokes, "Why is Temple Bar like a lady's veil? Both must be raised (razed) for " busses" ( 'buses). It was noted in jest "as a weak spot in our defences", since one could walk through the adjoining barbershop where one door opened on to the city and the other in the area of Westminster. In 1874 it was discovered that the keystones had dropped and the arches were propped up with timbers. The steady increase in horse and cart traffic led to complaints that Temple Bar was becoming a bottleneck, holding back the City trade. In 1878 the

, eager to widen the road but unwilling to destroy so historic a monument, dismantled it piece-by-piece over an 11-day period and stored its 2,700 stones carefully. In 1880 the brewer Henry Meux, at the instigation of his wife Valerie Susan Meux, bought the stones and re-erected the arch as the facade of a new gatehouse in the park of his mansion house Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire, the site of a former substantial prodigy house of

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...

. There it remained, positioned in a woodland clearing, until 2003. A plaque now marks the Hertfordshire site. File:Temple Bar as it appeared at the commencement of the 18th Century.jpg, Artist's conception of the Temple Bar Gate at the commencement of the 18th century. Note heads on pikes above the gate. Temple Bar, 1876 by Philip Norman.jpg, ''Temple Bar'' by Philip Norman, 1876 Temple Bar, London, 1878.jpg, Temple Bar Gate required timber support props in the 1870s and was dismantled in 1878. Temple bar theobolds park 1.jpg, Temple Bar Gate was re-erected at Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire in the late 19th century. Pictured here in 1968, it stood there until being moved back to London. Temple Bar, Theobalds Park - geograph.org.uk - 185643.jpg, Temple Bar Gate at Theobalds Park, 1999

The Gate's present location

In March 1938 Theobalds Park was sold by Sir Hedworth Meux to

Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the cou ...

, but Wren's Temple Bar Gatehouse was excluded from the sale and retained by the Meux trustees in the park. In 1984 it was bought by the Temple Bar Trust from the Meux Trust for the sum of £1. In December 2001 the city's

Court of Common Council The Court of Common Council is the primary decision-making body of the City of London Corporation. It meets nine times per year. Most of its work is carried out by committees. City of London Corporation elections , Elections are held at least eve ...

resolved to contribute funds for the return of Temple Bar Gate to the city. On 13 October 2003 the first stone was dismantled at Theobalds Park and all were placed on 500 pallets for storage. In 2004 it was returned to the City of London where it was painstakingly re-erected as an entrance to the Paternoster Square redevelopment immediately north of

, opening to the public on 10 November 2004. The total cost of the project was over £3 million, funded mainly by the City of London, with donations from the Temple Bar Trust and several City Livery Companies. In September 2022, Temple Bar London, consisting of the gateway and an adjacent building (Paternoster Lodge), was officially reopened by the Duke of Gloucester and the

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

Vincent Keaveny as the home of a

livery company A livery company is a type of guild or professional association that originated in medieval times in London, England. Livery companies comprise London's ancient and modern trade associations and guilds, almost all of which are Style (form of a ...

, the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, providing space for meetings and dining and an education centre funded by the

Corporation of London The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's fi ...

's CIL Neighbourhood fund. The top of one of the gates was offered for sale by Dreweatts Auctioneers in a London sale of surplus stock from LASSCO on 15 June 2013.

Temple Bar Memorial

Following the removal of Wren's gate, Horace Jones, Architect and Surveyor to the City of London, designed a memorial to mark Temple Bar, which was unveiled in 1880. The Temple Bar Memorial stands in the street in front of the Royal Courts of Justice. The elaborate

pedestal A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

in a

neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

style serves as the base for a sculpture by

Charles Bell Birch Charles Bell Birch (28 September 1832 – 16 October 1893) was a British sculptor. Biography Birch was born at Brixton in south London, the son of the author and translator Jonathan Birch (translator), Jonathan Birch (1783–1847) and his wif ...

of a dragon

supporter In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the shield and depicted holding it up. Historically, supporters were left to an individual's free choice and were assu ...

(sometimes erroneously referred to as a

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk ...

) bearing a shield of the arms of the City of London. The pedestal is decorated with statues by Joseph Boehm of

and her son the then

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

, the last royals to have entered the City through Wren's gate, which event is depicted in one of the

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

s which also decorate the structure. File:Temple Bar Marker, London 1.jpg, Temple Bar Memorial in 2009 (installed 1880) File:Temple Bar Marker Detail.jpg, South face, Queen Victoria File:Temple Bar Memorial "Queen Victoria's Progress to the Guildhall" (26783143358).jpg, South face, Queen Victoria's Progress to the Guildhall, 1837 File:Statue of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), Temple Bar, London (4056362001).jpg, North face, Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales File:Temple Bar Memorial "Going To St.Paul's" (40612521402).jpg, North face, Queen Victoria and the Prince (Edward VII) and Princess of Wales going to St Paul's, 1872 File:London England Victor Grigas 2011-10.jpg, East face with St Clement Danes in the background. File:TEMPLE BAR MEMORIAL IN CENTRE OF ROAD.jpg, Head (west) end of the dragon File:Royal Courts of Justice 20130414 055.JPG, The dragon from the south In the 1960s, similar but smaller and more subdued dragon sculptures were set at other entry points to the city. Two were originally created in 1849 by J. B. Bunning for the entrance to the Coal Exchange (and were relocated to Victoria Embankment following that building's demolition in 1962), while the others are smaller-scale versions of Bunning's design.

In fiction

mentioned Temple Bar in ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long impr ...

'' (Book II, Chapter I), noting its proximity to the fictional Tellson's Bank on Fleet Street. This was in fact Child & Co., which used the upper rooms of Temple Bar as storage space. Whilst critiquing the moral poverty of late 18th-century London, Dickens wrote that in matters of crime and punishment, "putting to death was a recipe much in vogue", and illustrated the horror caused by severed heads "exposed on Temple Bar with an insensate brutality and ferocity". In

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...

's '' The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids'', he contrasts the beauty of the Temple Bar gateway at the highest point on the road leading to the hellish paper factory, which he calls a "Dantean Gateway" (in his '' Inferno'',

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

describes the gateway to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

, over which are written the words, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"). The dragon on top of the Temple Bar monument comes to life in Charlie Fletcher's children's book about London, '' Stoneheart''. The dragon also features in

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

's '' The Years'', in which one of the main characters, Martin, points "at the splayed-out figure at Temple Bar; it looked as ridiculous as usual – something between a serpent and a fowl."

Notes

References

External links

Temple Bar London website''The Return of Temple Bar to the City of London'' website ''City of London'' website with history of Temple Bar
* {{City of London gates Christopher Wren buildings in London Buildings and structures in the City of London History of the City of London Grade I listed gates Buildings and structures completed in 1672 Relocated buildings and structures in England Tourist attractions in the City of London 1672 establishments in England Bar