Temple Bar

It was first mentioned in 1293 as a chain between two wooden posts. In 1351 a real gate was built with a prison above it. This gate was repaired and painted for the coronation of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. Elizabeth I passed through it on way to St Paul’s to give thanks for defeat of Spanish Armada

Since that time there has been a brief ceremony when the Queen visits the City, where the Lord Mayor offers his ceremonial sword to the monarch, who touches it and give it back to him.

The arch is built out of Portland stone with central archway for carriages and foot posterns on either side. There are statues of James I and Anne of Denmark on east side [i.e. City side] and Charles I and Charles II on west side [i.e. Westminster side].

From 1684 Temple Bar was used to display the remains (usually heads) of traitors The first of these was Sir Thomas Armstrong, whose body parts were boiled in salt so birds would not eat them. Telescopes could be hired for 1/2d a look. The last head exhibited was that of Jacobite Francis Towneley in 1746.

Beside the gate there was a pillory where Titus Oates stood in 1685 and Daniel Defoe, the writer of Robinson Crusoe, in 1703.

In 1806 the gate was repaired and covered in black velvet for Nelson’s funeral.

In 1878 gate removed because of traffic congestion and for ten years Temple Bar lay in pieces in a yard in Farringdon Road until Sir Henry Bruce Meux bought it and re-erected it on his estate at Theobalds Park, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. It stood there for nearly a century becoming more and more dilapidated.

The Temple Bar Trust was formed in 1976 to rescue it and return it to London and in 2004 the rebuilt and sparklingly clean Portland stone gateway opened in its new site in Paternoster Square. The restoration cost £3m.

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