Temple Bar - a symbolic point in London, where it ends Strand, going through Westminster, and begins Fleet Street in the City. In the Middle Ages there was a barrier that marks the border city.

Just a medieval London were eight such barriers (bars), leading to the "square mile". The area has always been a special position: conquering Normans in 1085 did not make it in the Domesday Book (Summing up Europe's first census of the population), British monarchs traditionally enter the territory of the City only with the permission of the local Lord Mayor. Bars are mentioned for the first time in 1293 - most likely at first it was just a chain of overlapping streets. Later in their place appeared a wooden arch.

Wooden Temple Bar on the Strand escaped death in the Great Fire of 1666, but during the restoration of the city, it was decided to replace it with a stone arch. Her project was developed at the direction of King Charles II, the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren. Gates of Portland stone were erected in 1672.

By 1878 it became clear that a fairly narrow gate hamper traffic in the Strand and Fleet Street. Build neat, stone by stone, dismantled and sent to storage. In its place in 1880 by architect Horace Jones established a memorial, a reminder of the long history of Temple Bar.

Memorial is designed as a high granite pedestal topped with a bronze winged dragon work of Charles Bell Birch (dragon - a symbol of the City). The pedestal is decorated with marble statues of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm. In 1872, the queen and the prince were the last members of the royal family, who entered the city through the old yet, "renovskie" gates. This event is commemorated in relief, decorating the pedestal: a solemn cortege moved to the Cathedral of St. Paul, where the queen will attend the thanksgiving service to mark the recovery of the Prince. Two other relief devoted to the royal visit to the Town Hall in 1837 (Lord Mayor hands over the keys to the City of Victoria and his sword) and saying goodbye to the stone gate of Temple Bar (tighten their special curtain). Special vertical reliefs devoted to the sphere of human activity - from the arts and sciences to the navigation.

"New Temple Bar" is set on a street dividing strip directly opposite the magnificent Victorian building, the Royal Court in London and near the street leading to the Temple Church. It is believed that the name of Temple Bar is associated with this temple built eight centuries ago, the powerful Templar Order.