The statue, which is best viewed from
the opposite side of the road, is about life-size. It shows Gresham, carved from
Portland stone, wearing dress of the 16th century. His right arm is bent at the
elbow with his right hand resting on his chest with some of his fingers tucked
into his tunic. His left arm is extend downwards with the hand resting on a
block of stone. He has a cap on his head and is sporting a full
beard.
The Victorian Web website [visit link]
tells us:
"Sir Thomas Gresham by Henry Bursill
(fl. 1855-1870). 1869. Holborn Viaduct, London EC1. The gold letters on a dark
stone plaque beneath the statue read in full: 'Sir Thomas Gresham Born c. 1519,
Died 1579.'"
The Exploring London Blog [visit link]
tells us about Gresham:
"Remembered primarily for having
founded the Royal Exchange as a centre for commerce in London and Gresham
College, Sir Thomas Gresham was one of London’s leading merchants and financiers
and an important advisor to successive monarchs during the sixteenth
century.
Gresham was born in Milk Lane,
London, to merchant Sir Richard Gresham (himself Lord Mayor of London in
1537-38) around 1518-19. He studied at Cambridge before being apprenticed to
learn the family trade with his uncle, Sir John Gresham.
In 1543, he was admitted to the
Mercers’ Company and subsequently spent time in the Low Countries, residing
principally in Antwerp and acting as an agent for King Henry VIII. In 1544 he
married Anne Fernley, widow of another London merchant. He also had a house in
Lombard Street at this time.
Sir Thomas became an important
advisor to King Edward VI, helping him alleviate financial concerns, a
role he continued to play during the successive reigns of Queen Mary I and Queen
Elizabeth I (although he spent some time out of favor during Mary’s
reign).
Knighted for his services to the
crown in 1559, he proposed to built his ‘exchange’ in 1565, offering to pay for
it himself if the City of London and Mercers’ Company provided the land.
Modelled on the bourse in Antwerp with a trading floor and shops and offices set
around a large central courtyard, it was officially awarded the title ‘royal’ by
Queen Elizabeth I in 1571.
Sir Thomas died suddenly in 1579,
apparently of a heart attack, and left the majority of his wealth to his widow
but included clauses in his will stating that after her death rents from the
Royal Exchange be used to create a college which would see seven professors
offer free lecturers on subjects ranging from astronomy and geometry to rhetoric
and divinity.
Known as Gresham College, it became
the first institution of higher education in London when it was founded in 1597
and was initially based at Sir Thomas’ mansion in Bishopsgate (it’s now based in
Barnard’s Inn Hall and, as it has for the past 400 years, still offers free
public lectures).
In 1666, Sir Thomas’ Royal Exchange
burnt down along with much of London but it was rebuilt immediately afterward
(King Charles II laid the foundation stone of the new building) and rebuilt
again following another fire in 1838 (at the time the building was largely
occupied by two insurance companies, one of which was Lloyds of
London).
It’s this third building, designed
by Sir Thomas Tite to resemble the original plan, which stands on the site
today. While trading has long since ceased there – it’s now a luxury-end
shopping centre – Sir Thomas’s symbol, the gold ‘Gresham Grasshopper’, can still
be seen on the weathervane."