Category: Symbols Page 1 of 7

Special Dragon edition!

On 11th July 2024

This week’s blog was prompted by a gift we received – a wonderfully crafted baby dragon from Little Dragon Designs . He’s very small, only just over three inches wide, but very meticulously detailed …

It reminded me that the City is full of dragons and that it has been a long time since I paid them a visit.

In 1963 the Government was redrawing local government boundaries and the City Corporation had to decide how its area of control should be identified. Rather than someting bland and commonplace (e.g. Welcome to the City – Please Drive Carefully) they looked for something a bit more dramatic.

Their final choice to use dragons was facilitated by the controversial decision to demolish the Coal Exchange in Lower Thames Street. The trade in coal in London was hugely important, not just because it fuelled the city, but thanks to taxes that were introduced after the Great Fire of London, it funded a lot of London building works. The Coal Exchange was built in 1847 to help manage the trade and, high above the main entrance, two plinths held two large cast-iron dragons. Here it is around 1900 …

When the Exchange was demolished, the City of London Streets Committee conceived the idea of preserving the dragons as boundary markers, and they were inaugurated in their new home on Victoria Embankment on 16 October 1963 where they remain to this day …

They were originally cast, by the London founder Dewer, in 1849, as can be seen on the back of the shield …

These original dragons are seven feet tall but half size replicas were created for deployment around 11 other entry points to the City.

Before I go on to share more dragons with you the first thing I must be clear about is that the City symbol is a dragon and not a griffin (as is still mistakenly stated in many City guides).

The legendary griffin (or gryphon) is a creature with the body, tail and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle’s talons as its front feet. I have only been able to find one in the City and here it is at the entrance to Dunster Court in Mincing Lane …

He proudly supports the arms of the Clothworkers Company.

Dragons, on the other hand, have a barbed tail, tend to be scaly all over and breathe fire and smoke. Here is the City of London version on Tower Hill …

It is made of cast iron and painted in silver with details picked out in red. It supports a shield with the City emblem of the red cross of St George and the short sword of St Paul, the City’s patron saint.

Guarding the boundary between the City of London and Westminster, the Temple Bar Dragon is in a league of its own. It is taller, fiercer, very gothic and is black rather than silver. It would be quite at home in a Harry Potter story and is quite scary – maybe that’s why the Corporation Committee Chairman, having considered the Temple Bar version, chose the less flamboyant Coal Exchange dragons as boundary markers instead …

Another dragon at Temple Bar faces towards Westminster …

A Times writer commented that it ‘wears an aspect of defiance similar to that of the lion surmounting the mound on the field of Waterloo’.

Once you get your eye in, so to speak, you will find dragons everywhere.

This Smithfield Market beast looks like he is just about to swoop down – perhaps for a meaty lunch …

And these two work hard supporting the roof of Leadenhall Market …

One might pop up unexpectedly as you cross Holborn Viaduct …

You encounter this formidable pair as you leave Bank Underground Station …

More delicate versions adorn the lamps outside the Royal Exchange …

The City’s coat of arms atop the Guildhall …

And on the newer building nearby …

The City’s Latin motto : Lord guide us.

A more modern version (also at the Guildhall) …

You will find a fascinating article about the City coat of arms here.

If you are fascinated by dragons, or know someone who is, I highly recommend a visit to the Little Gragon Designs website. A vast selection of dragon-related gifts!

Remember you can follow me on Instagram …

https://www.instagram.com/london_city_gent

Liverpool Street Station under threat of redevelopment.

By The City Gent

On 1st June 2023

In Architecture, Commerce, Memorials, Symbols

I thought you might like to know that plans are afoot to substantially redevelop Liverpool Street Station. You can read more about them here and here.

Liverpool Street is the UK’s third busiest station after Victoria and Waterloo. This will no doubt come as no surprise to those of you who battle your way through here every day in the rush hours. However, maybe I can persuade you to spend a little time exploring the station and its surroundings since it does have some really fascinating aspects to it.

Next to the station eastern entrance is a Wetherspoons in a building called Hamilton Hall. It is named after Lord Claud Hamilton, chairman of the Great Eastern Railway Company (1893–1923), and is the former ballroom of the old Great Eastern Hotel. Pop in for a drink and cast your eyes upwards …

The bar area.

Yes, the original ballroom decorations are still there, and you can get an even closer look if you go upstairs …

At least one source states that the design was copied directly from the Palais Soubise in Paris in 1901. Opulent is the word that springs to mind.

Named after the British Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, Liverpool Street was the Great Eastern Railway’s London Terminus with the first suburban trains departing in 1874.The Great Eastern, and its successor the London & North Eastern Railway, concentrated on developing and increasing its suburban steam services, a business model that continued until steam was withdrawn in the 1960s. Under its modernisation plan, British Railways electrified all suburban services running form Liverpool Street station, and all steam had been replaced by diesel locomotives by the end of 1962.

The days of steam.

Someone once described it as a ‘Dark Cathedral’.

A plan to demolish the station, and its neighbour Broad Street, was first put forward in 1975 but fierce opposition meant a compromise had to be reached. Eventually, only Broad Street was demolished (in 1986) and Liverpool Street developed more sympathetically.

Nicely preserved are traces of a time when astonishing care was taken with what people would see on starting and finishing their journey.

What about these lovely reliefs sculpted in brick against the back wall of the Great Eastern Hotel …

A steam train …

One of the Great Eastern Railway’s own ships …

And a fireman, or stoker …

The western entrance towers hold a clock and the old railway emblems …

Just outside the entrance is the Kindertransport commemorative statue …

Photograph: Robin Coupland. Statue by Frank Meisler (2006).

In 1938 and 1939, nearly ten thousand unaccompanied Jewish children were transported to Britain to escape persecution in their hometowns in Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria. These children arrived at Liverpool Street station to be taken in by British families and foster homes. Often they were the only members of their families to survive the Holocaust.

The station contains a number of other poignant memorials. The inscription above the largest one reads:

To the glory of God and in grateful memory of the Great Eastern Railway staff who in response to the call of their King and Country, sacrificed their lives during the Great War.

There are over 1,100 names.

There are two plaques below the main memorial …

Wilson was assassinated outside his house in Eaton Place at about 2:20 pm. Still in full uniform, he was shot six times, two bullets in the chest proving fatal. Some newspapers provided a reconstruction …

A French newspaper version showed him with sword drawn but actually he had no time to defend himself …

Sir Henry’s House today …

Property valuation for First And Second Floor Flat, 56 Eaton Place, London, City Of Westminster, SW1X 8AT | The Move Market

The two perpetrators, Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan, shot two police officers and a chauffeur as they attempted to escape but were surrounded by a hostile crowd and arrested after a struggle …

Interestingly both were former British army officers and O’Sullivan had lost a leg at Ypres, his subsequent disability hindering their escape. After a trial lasting just three hours they were convicted of murder and hanged at Wandsworth gaol on 10 August that year – justice was certainly delivered swiftly in those days. No organisation claimed responsibility for Wilson’s murder. I try in this blog to be as accurate as possible with regard to history and there are numerous opinions as to the background to this event. If you are interested, the online information available is fascinating.

Nearby is this plaque …

The Master of the Great Eastern Railway ship SS Brussels, Fryatt was court martialled for attempting to ram an attacking German submarine and being a franc-tireur (a civilian engaged in hostile military action). Having been found guilty, he was executed almost immediately by firing squad, after a show trial lasting barely two hours, during which he was afforded no proper defence. As happened following the execution of Edith Cavell in 1915, the event caused international outrage, and led to Fryatt’s body being repatriated after the war and given a ceremonial funeral. If you have the chance, read about him online – the story is absolutely fascinating.

This memorial was unveiled in 1920 by the Lord Mayor …

I have been unable to find out anything about The London Society of East Anglians.

The station was built on the site of the old Bethlehem asylum for the mentally ill commonly known as Bedlam. So when trains are totally disrupted and people say ‘it’s Bedlam here’ – once upon a time it really was.