Royal Coat of Arms for Kings Charles I and II -- Temple Bar Gate, City of London, UK
N 51° 30.851 W 000° 05.971
30U E 701248 N 5710995
The Royal Coat of Arms for Kings Charles I and II of England on the west face of the Temple Bar Gate at Paternoster Square
Waymark Code: WMTCQX
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/02/2016
Views: 2
The Royal Coats of Arms for Kings Charles I and II of England are affixed to the center of the west face of the Temple Bar Gate at Paternoster Square, and are on shields held by an English Lion in the left side and a unicorn on the right.
From the History of the Temple Bar website: (
visit link)
"History of Temple Bar
Sir Christopher Wren’s Temple Bar marked the gateway to the City of London for 200 years. Then it was rebuilt at Theobalds Park, Cheshunt to form a grand entrance to a country estate.
Today, Temple Bar has been rebuilt at Paternoster Square, opposite St. Paul’s Cathedral in the heart of London.
. . .
Sir Christopher Wren’s Temple Bar
Temple Bar is best remembered as Sir Christopher Wren’s monument, and although no documents survive to prove he designed it, Wren’s son retained original drawings for the work. The old gate survived the Great Fire of 1666, but had fallen into disrepair. Under the orders of Charles II Temple Bar was rebuilt with highly prized Portland stone from the Royal quarries in Dorset, demonstrating the importance that the king placed on the project. One third of the total cost of £1,500 was spent on sculpturing four impressive regal statues to adorn the new stone gateway. On the east side of the gateway, in two niches, were stone statues of Queen Anne of Denmark and James I, and on the west side were the statues of Charles I and Charles II. It was a statement which illustrated that Temple Bar was as much a royal monument as a city one.
During the eighteenth century Temple Bar was used to display the heads of traitors on iron spikes which protruded from the top of the main arch. One story goes that the Rye House plotters drew so much attention that telescopes were offered for hire in order to gain a better view. The last heads to be displayed were those of Towneley and Fletcher, who were taken at the Siege of Carlisle and executed in 1746. For some time after Towneley’s execution his head was displayed on Temple Bar until a faithful family retainer secured possession of it and brought it back to Burnley, where for many years it was kept in a basket covered with a napkin in the drawing room at Towneley Hall.
Removal of Temple Bar from Fleet Street
Wren’s Temple Bar stood in Fleet Street for just over 200 years until a variety of factors ditacted its removal. Firstly, and most importantly, the roadway needed widening to relieve the heavy traffic and the building of the Royal Courts of Justice resulted in the decision to remove the somewhat costly and outdated Temple Bar. The Corporation of London however, had a strong attachment to the Bar and rather than see it cleared away, it was taken down brick by brick, beam by beam, numbered stone by stone, and stored in a yard off Farringdon Road until a decision for its re-erection could be reached."