Temple Bar

Visitor information

Facts and information

Address:: Temple Bar, Fleet Street, The City,
London EC4
England
Buses:: 4 8 11 15 17 23 25 26 45 46 76 176 243 341 521
Trains:: Blackfriars CRC DSC, Chancery Lane CNT, Holborn CNT PCL, Temple CRC DSC Note: The nearest train station to Temple Bar is Temple. We can help you find the best route from any other train station:
Train journey to Temple Bar

^{Temple Bar monument, Fleet Street} The original Temple Bar, in its new position

^{Temple Bar, in its new position}

Did you know… The monarch still needs permission to enter the City of London today, and waits at Temple Bar for ceremonial consent.

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Temple Bar once marked the western limit of The City, and took its name from the Temple Church nearby. It originally stood just outside the city walls, and separated the center of trade from the political heart of England – the City of Westminster.

The monument that stands in the centre of the road today is a relatively modern affair – the first bar was literally just a chain attached to two bits of wood. This was replaced by a stone gateway in 1351, which contained a small jailhouse on its second floor.

Extensive repairs were carried out by Christopher Wren in 1670, and for the next half-a-century it became the gruesome post upon which the heads of traitors were mounted.

The modern-day Temple Bar

The steady increase in horse and cart traffic on Victorian roads led to complaints that Temple Bar was becoming a bottleneck, holding back the City trade. So in 1878 it was decided to take it down and transfer it to the Hertfordshire estate of Henry Bruce Meux.

A stone memorial was placed outside the Royal Courts of Justice in 1880, marking the spot where it once stood – this is what we see today. It was designed by Horace Jones and topped by the symbol of the City – a huge winged dragon.

The original gate was later returned to the City, and now occupies a place near St. Paul’s Cathedral.

>> Drummerboy’s blog – Temple Bar

Drummerboy – “Imagine yourself in London, three hundred and fifty years ago. There used to be a big Roman wall around the city, and Temple Bar was one of the gates that let you in. Christopher Wren redesigned it in the 17th-century and it straddled the road in Fleet Street. If you look at the base of the monument then you can see a big black plaque which shows you what it originally looked like. Unfortunately old Christopher made it a bit too narrow for the traffic that was steaming through two hundred years later, and the authorities tore it down… continued.”