The Story Behind The Dragons In The City Of London

On the outskirts of the City of London you will find a series of fourteen dragon sculptures.

You can see a map of their locations below.

If you see one of these little sculptures you know you are crossing a boundary either into or out of the ancient City of London. This is the story behind them.

The City of London

First, a quick recap on what the ‘City of London’ is. The City, with a capital ‘C’, is a city within Greater London. Just over a square mile in size, it is the oldest part of London, where the Romans originally established the trading settlement of Londinium nearly 2000 years ago. 

They enclosed the settlement with a wall in around the year 200 but, certainly, from the medieval period, their authourity extended beyond the walls to checkpoints or ‘bars’ on main thoroughfares. This allowed them to do checks and extract tolls from people wanting to enter. There were therefore areas, ‘wards’, under the control of the City authorities that were inside, or ‘within’, and areas outside, or ‘without’, the walls. 

The City of London is still today a bit of a constitutional anomaly. It has its own Lord Mayor, police force and powers of self-governance that other areas of London do not have. It is largely the financial district, but alongside the soaring skyscrapers going ever higher, are Roman ruins, medieval churches, St Paul’s Cathedral, Guildhall and much more.

The first dragon 

The Western edge of the jurisdiction of the City of London, at the boundary between Fleet Street and the Strand, from at least the 13th century, was marked with a chain or bar across the road. It is still today known as ‘Temple Bar’. In the 14th century this was replaced with a wooden gateway. This was then replaced in 1669 with a stone gateway, designed most likely by Sir Christopher Wren.

The Temple Bar Gate stood on Fleet Street/Strand until 1878 when it was removed to ease traffic on the road and today it can be found by St Paul’s Cathedral. I have written a blog post before on its history. 

The Temple Bar Memorial

Where the gate once stood, the Temple Bar Memorial was erected.

The large rectangular column was designed by Horace Jones, the architect behind Smithfield Market and Tower Bridge. Atop it sits a dramatic bronze dragon, sculpted by Charles Birch.

Some say it is a griffin, but the dragon symbol was most likely taken from the City of London’s coat of arms, which displays two dragon supporters. Dragons have long been symbols of strength, power but also appear as guardians of wealth and knowledge in Celtic mythology.

The dragons were added to the coat of arms in the early 17th century, likely from the legend of St George, the patron saint of England. As you can see the coat of arms also displays the St George’s Cross.

The Temple Bar Memorial also has lots of other interesting details. It displays statues of Queen Victoria and Prince Edward (future King Edward VII). They are surrounded by symbols representing art, science, industry etc. 

The Lord Mayor at the time is represented as well as Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria. He died not that long after the memorial was put up in 1892 of pneumonia, aged just 28.

There are also little bronze sculptures of royal processions.

“here Be Dragons”

The next two dragons to be put up were those that can be found on the Victoria Embankment. 

Dating from 1849, they were designed by James Bunstone Bunning and once were raised up, either side of the entrance to the Coal Exchange building on Lower Thames Street. 

The Coal Exchange was sadly demolished in 1962, but the dragons were thankfully saved and placed on the embankment in 1963. 1963 was the year of the London Government Act. This act defined Greater London and combined many of the boroughs to create the boroughs that we have today. This was therefore when the boundaries of the City of London, pretty much as we know them today, were defined (bar some minor changes). 

The City authorities therefore decided to replicate the Embankment dragons to place more on the main thoroughfares coming into the City.

So, there we have it, the City of London has its own team of dragon guardians. Next time you are facing one, you can think about how you are soon to cross a boundary laden with century upon century of symbolic power, tradition and history.

They are also one of the little details I highlight in my book, London: A Guide for Curious Wanderers!

Thank you for reading, more of London’s living history below.