Temple Bar (London)

Temple Bar denotes a boundary point, which marks the westernmost extent of the City of London on the road to Westminster, where Fleet Street to the beach. Until 1878, this boundary was marked by a stone gate. Since then, there is a pillar in the middle of the street.

In the Middle Ages the sphere of the Corporation of London presented in many places beyond the old city walls of the City. Were to control the trade wherever the city limit appreciably from an old city gate was removed, built along the main roads barriers. The Temple Bar was the most famous of these barriers, since the traffic between England's most important trading center ( London) and its political center ( Westminster) flowed through there. The name comes from the southern Temple, a district which formerly belonged to the Knights Templar and now two of the four Inns of Court houses.

It is an old custom that the British monarch at Temple Bar stops before he enters the City of London, so that the Lord Mayor can give him a pearl decorated sword as a sign of loyalty. This picturesque ceremony has often been described in art and literature. However, the widely held view that the monarch in need to enter the City of the permission of the Lord Mayor, is wrong.

Today, the Temple Bar is marked by a stone pillar in the middle of the road that is on the statue of a dragon (also called " Griffin " ) crowned. The dragon is taken from the coat of arms of the City, which is framed by two dragons.

The building

The first Temple Bar was probably no more than a turnpike. Since 1293 there has been a kind of gate, which was heavily damaged during the Peasants 'Revolt of 1381 ( Peasants ' Revolt ).

In the late Middle Ages, on the site of a wooden archway with a prison about it. After it had been heavily damaged in 1666 during the "Great Fire of London ", a new building was necessary. Charles II commissioned Sir Christopher Wren, who built an archway from Portland stone 1669-1672. During the 18th century, the severed heads of traitors impaled were placed on the roof of the gatehouse on display.

The seven other major gates of London ( Aldgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Ludgate, Moorgate and Newgate ) were all demolished to 1800, but the Temple Bar continued to provide a barrier to the ever- increasing traffic. The Corporation of London wanted to widen the road, but hesitated to destroy a historically important building. 1878 Wrens archway was therefore taken apart piece by piece within eleven days and stored the 2,700 stones carefully.

1880 bought the brewer Sir Henry Meux the stones at the urging of his wife and built the bow again as a gateway to his house, Theobalds Park in Hertfordshire.

There, the arch stood in a forest clearing to 2003. 1984 Temple Bar Trust had purchased the building for a pound from Meux Trust. He was then taken apart carefully and brought to 500 pallets in the City of London, where he north of St Paul's Cathedral was erected carefully again at the entrance to Paternoster Square redevelopment area. It was opened in late 2004 to the public.