Temple Bar has
finally returned to the Square Mile. In the December
meeting of the Court of Common Council in 2001, the City of
London agreed to fund the return of Temple Bar to the Square
Mile. At a cost of just over £3.0m - funded by the City of
London along with donations from the Temple Bar Trust and
several Livery Companies - the reconstruction of Temple
Bar on a site next to St Paul's Cathedral was completed
in November 2004.
Both ancient monument consent for the
removal of the arch from Theobalds Park, and planning consent for
the re-erection in Paternoster Square were necessary. The
arch previously owned by the Temple Bar Trust was
donated to the City of London. In its new position adjacent to
the north west Tower of St Paul’s Cathedral, it forms a
pedestrian gateway into the redeveloped Paternoster
Square.
The stonework needed a considerable
amount of conservation and restoration work which was carried out
by a specialist contractor, the Cathedral Works Organisation.
It was originally adorned with four
royal statues (Charles I, Charles II, James I and Anne of Denmark)
carved by John Bushnell and these have now been restored
and returned to the four niches on the main elevations
of Temple Bar.
In addition new statues
depicting the Royal Beasts, City Supporters and associated Coats of
Arms (cartouches) were carved by Tim Crawley of
Fairhaven of Anglesey Abbey. These replace the
original statues which were lost after Temple Bar was removed from
Fleet Street in the nineteenth century.
Click here
to see the Temple Bar site charting the move
With the completion of Temple
Bar, a unique part of the City’s history will have returned from
obscurity. Whilst the monument still retains the distressed
character reflecting its age and past history, English Heritage saw
the project as having provided a “unique” opportunity for the
conservation of an ancient monument in the heart of the City of
London in as near an original condition as possible. It was
possible to retain over 95% of the original stonework.
History
When the boundaries of the City of
London were more defined than they are today, Temple Bar was one of
the entrances or gates through which people and traffic had to
pass. It originally stood where Fleet Street now meets the Strand,
which was actually outside the London boundary wall. A bar is first
mentioned in 1293, at which time it was probably no more than a
chain (or bar) between wooden posts.
Its name derives from the fact that
it was next to the Temple law courts. It is the only surviving
gateway to the City of the original eight because, when it was
removed to ease the flow of traffic, it was taken away and
re-erected in Hertfordshire. The other gateways, Aldgate,
Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Ludgate, Moorgate and
Newgate, were all demolished before the end of
the eighteenth century.
Although there was some kind of
gate at the site from very early times, the surviving structure is
the imposing Portland stone arch completed in 1672 and reputedly
designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The Temple Bar ceremony, which is
still occasionally re-enacted at a monument to the Bar, involves
the monarch stopping to request permission to enter the City and
the Lord Mayor presenting the Sword of State as a sign of
loyalty.
As well as being featured in
ceremonies and processions, Temple Bar has many gory tales to
tell. It was often used to display, using spikes, the heads
and other body parts of traitors who had been executed. It
must have been a chilling sight to people passing under the
arch and the last heads exhibited in this way were those of
participants in the rebellion of 1745.
Eventually, in the nineteenth century,
the arch became a cause of traffic congestion and was expensive to
maintain, so it was taken down in January 1878. The City of London
ensured that each stone was numbered and put into storage until it
could be re-erected somewhere else. In 1880 Sir Henry Meux, the
brewer, bought the stones and made use of the Temple Bar as a
gateway to his park and mansion at Theobalds Park, between Enfield
and Cheshunt. It was erected in 1889. The mansion is now used as
part of a conference centre and Temple Bar stood there alone and
unused, surrounded by woods and grass.
The Temple Bar Trust had been established in 1976 with the
intention of returning Temple Bar to the City of London. The Trust
was established by the late Hugh Wontner GBE CVO, Lord Mayor of the
City of London in 1974. The Trustees are drawn from members of the
City of London together with others involved in the preservation of
the nation’s architectural heritage. In 1984 the Temple Bar Trust
became owner of Temple Bar and permission was granted for the
removal of the Bar from Theobalds Park to Paternoster Square,
adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral. 
The journey to return it to the City of London started in the
summer of 2003.
On 10 November 2004 Alderman Robert Finch, the Lord Mayor of the
City of London, officially returned Temple Bar to the City of
London. Accompanied by the Sheriffs and Members of the Court of
Common Council, he unveiled a plaque before officially pushing open
the gates of Temple Bar, weighing just over 1.2 tons each, helped
by 14 of the stone masons who have worked on the project over the
last 14 months.
The Lord Mayor said: “It is fitting that the Bar should be placed
here as a symbol of London’s history together with its modern role.
I hope that Temple Bar will continue to bring pleasure to visitors
and to act as a symbol of the City’s welcome to the world for the
centuries to come.”