Though the precise year of Temple Bar’s construction is unknown, the earliest record was in 1327. Temple Bar was considered the gateway that separated the Strand from Fleet Street, the city from the shire, and the Freedom of the City of London from the Liberty of the City of Westminster. Even though the Great Fire of London in 1666 did not destroy the existing wooden structure, Temple Bar was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, from the order of King Charles II, between 1670-72 out of Portland stone from the Royal quarries of Dorset.
Being so close to the Temple, the Temple Bar became known for an area where lawyers organized, which became the Inns of Court to presently “Legal London.” Temple Bar was also used to display the heads of traitors on iron spikes which protruded from the top of the main arch. For example, the heads of George Fletcher and Colonel Francis Townley that were put on the Bar on August 12, 1746. Fletcher and Townley, conspirators in the Rye House plot, were so popular that people paid for telescopes to get a better view.
Due to the heavy traffic and the need of a wider roadway, Temple Bar was taken down brick by brick on January 2, 1878 and stored in a yard off Farringdon Road until a decision of it re-erection could be reached. In its place, a Temple Bar Memorial was built in 1880 which consists of a dragon or “griffin” mounted on a tall pedestal in the middle of the roadway. Ten years later, Temple Bar was rebuilt at Theobalds Park under the ownership of Lady Meux. Temple Bar is currently situated as the gateway to the central piazza at the Paternoster Square with the purpose to preserve of the nation’s architectural heritage by the established Temple Bar Trust and the Corporation of London.