Tag Archives: temple

21Mar/15

The Temple

London Stories, , , , , , ,

Ever since a very good friend of mine from Waikato University said his family used to be members of the Knights Templar, I have had an interest, and looked out for mentions of them. Now that I am in Holborn, I have found out that this was a hotbed of Templar activity. You’ll have heard of Temple Underground station, downhill from there on the Embankment; the land it sits on, the gardens and the buildings to its north, are all on what was Templar property and are divided into Outer and Inner Temple, each with its own symbol.

The knighthood of the Templars was founded in Jerusalem in the 1100’s and because their headquarters were next to Solomon’s Temple, they named their land and buildings, in London and in Paris, “Temple.” In the 1300s the order was brutally suppressed and in London everything they owned was seized and sold. Since at least the 1600s there have been legal chambers in these buildings. This is now almost exclusively the domain of Legal London.

Temple Church

Temple Church

On most Wednesday lunchtimes there is an organ recital in the Temple Church, just off Fleet St, which attracts the best organists of London and the world.

The Templar knights are shown here doubled up on a horse because they were individually poor, whilst their order was collectively rich and powerful. This statue is on top of the Millennium Monument alongside the Temple Church.

Templar knights

Templar knights

These grounds of the Inner Temple, below, are a popular place for Fleet St workers to relax during their lunchtime. Many of the buildings are Victorian, but the most famous are Elizabethan. After you have had a quiet look through the Temple Church, see if you can talk your way into a tour of the Great Hall. Look for the Temple Fountain because it’s alongside the Hall.

Grounds of the Inner Temple

Grounds of the Inner Temple

This beautifully carved effigy, below, of an “Unknown knight” of the 13th Century is on the floor in the circular area of the Medieval and unique Temple Church, made famous recently by Dan Brown’s book “The DaVinci Code.”

Effigy of an “Unknown knight”

Effigy of an “Unknown knight”

Here are the symbols for the two great inns of court; Inner Temple,  and Middle Temple.

Inner Temple

Inner Temple

Middle Temple

Middle Temple

This is the Hall of Inner Temple. It’s not easy to get inside to have a look around, but occasionally you might be lucky to arrive there on a visitors day; give it go, I’ve heard the interior is a pretty special sight.

Hall of Inner Temple

Hall of Inner Temple

21Mar/15

Temple Bar

London Stories, , , , , ,

I’ve been wondering for a while why there is a Fleet Street sign on the Old Bank of England building, but a there’s a Strand sign on the end of the Royal Courts of Justice, just 20m apart. Somewhere between the two, on a straight piece of road, Fleet St changes its name. I found the reason yesterday; did you notice the Victorian needle monument in the middle of the road, with Queen Victoria and Albert on the base and a griffin on the top? Underneath the griffin, if you walk around the monument, you can read “Temple Bar formerly stood here.”

It was one of the gates to London City – along with Ludgate, Moorgate, Newgate, Aldgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, and a couple of others I can’t remember now. The Victorians pulled it down because it was causing traffic jams, but they put a monument in its place because Temple Bar has royal significance. It was reassembled as a grand entrance for the beer baron Sir Henry Meux in Cheshunt, Herts. His wife was a banjo-playing woman often accused of being posh above her humble origins. I often wonder if she was the original Lady Muck. The City of London rediscovered the gate, brought it home, set it up and reopened it in 2004. This is the view you would have seen from the Strand as you were about to enter the City.

Walk down Newgate Street from Holborn Viaduct and near the end turn right into Rose alley, which empties into Paternoster Square. Walk past the London Stock Exchange, through the archway to St Pauls and then look behind you. That is Temple Bar. I think the room at the top was the gate house.

Walk down Newgate Street from Holborn Viaduct and near the end turn right into Rose alley, which empties into Paternoster Square. Walk past the London Stock Exchange, through the archway to St Pauls and then look behind you. That is Temple Bar. I think the room at the top was the gate house.

Word has it that it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and it is the only surviving gate to the City. The City fathers used to stick the heads of executed prisoners from Newgate prison on spikes over its top, but the custom died out in the 1750s.

Here are the two statues on Temple Bar that you can see as you walk into Paternoster Square from St Pauls Cathedral of Charles I and Charles II. These are the restored originals by John Bushnell.

Charles I

Charles I

Charles II

Charles II

Below is the monument the Victorians left behind in Fleet St to mark where Temple Bar used to stand. You can see Queen Victoria looking out on this side of the monument, and beneath her is the ironwork below; an incredibly detailed relief showing the queen processing to the Opening of Parliament and all the excitement it caused.

Monument to Temple Bar in Fleet St.

Monument to Temple Bar in Fleet St.

On the side of the Fleet St monument that faces the Royal Courts of Justice is a statue of Prince Albert and beneath him is the bas relief below, showing Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on their way to St Pauls. The Royals would have processed from Buckingham Palace down the Strand, so they would have passed through Temple Bar then along Fleet St and up Ludgate Hill to ascend the front steps of St Pauls.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert going to St Pauls

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert going to St Pauls

The bar may originally have been no more that a chain across the road and got its name from being immediately outside The Temple, and Temple Church. It was never sited on the line of the Roman wall, so it did not accurately mark the boundary, but you had to pass through it to enter the City

Queen Victoria on her way to open Parliament

Queen Victoria on her way to open Parliament

If you go to the Lord Mayor’s Show and stand somewhere near St Paul’s you will see an ancient ritual where the mayor presents his sword to the Queen, or her representative, and she formally hands it back. This practice used to happen at Temple Bar, in which the mayor, on the City side of the bar, would hand over his sword as a sign of loyalty.

While we are talking about the Old Bank of England building in Fleet St, as I did in the first paragraph above, did you know that Sweeney Todd “The demon barber of Fleet St” had his barber and surgeon shop on one side, murdered and butchered his victims in the vaults underneath; and gave the meat to be used in pies sold by his mistress, on the other side?