In Bleak House, Temple Bar is where the high Lord Chancellor sits “in his High Court of Chancery.” This is important to the story because, at the time, the Temple Bar was the ceremonial entrance to London, so the chancellor is gatekeeping London from the common people through self-importance and the Law in the passage. It shows that he thinks he and his own position are the most important in London. So Dickens pictures him sitting here on his stool, thinking about how high and mighty he feels above the rest of the Londoners in the story. In other parts of the book, it is talked about the same way. Dickens calls it "that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation." He also jokes about it in the book and takes it lightly and almost irreverently because he finds it unimportant while being too self-important. He seems to have the same opinion as most normal Londoners at the time of disliking the monument for its impracticality.

Temple Bar is the building that was the ceremonial entrance to London until 1878. It is where the kings of Westminster and London would pass through to see each other – it was pompous and symbolic for all of the most formal (and perhaps impractical) parts of the government at the time. It represented all the formality and pomp and circumstance that London leaders had. It didn’t actually protect the city, and one of the jokes in Bleak House is that people could actually pass through a barber shop next door between the cities instead of using this gate. It was only a formality. 

In the 1870s, the common people hated the Temple Bar,  and the government loved it. People complained that it was causing traffic issues and was very pointless (which is almost exactly what Dickens was saying in the 1850s). The government did not want to ruin their historic and important-to-them building, so they spent a very long time restoring it, instead of removing it like the people asked for. This is why Dickens made fun of it in his book. Most of the people in London didn’t like it on a daily basis.

The Temple Bar likely began as just a chain between two gates, but by the time Dickens was writing about it, it was a gorgeous piece of architecture most likely designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It featured exquisite sculptures and became, then, something more pretty and symbolic than practical and plain.

There were eight others of this kind of symbolic gate all around London, but Temple Bar is the only one that has survived until the present. Temple bar is still an important building because it played a role in a lot of ceremonies and punishment rituals. It has always been protected by the government (and still is) and is now a popular tourist stop. The lovely architecture brings people to see it, but it also still represents -- as acknowledged in Bleak House -- the frivolity of government and what it holds important.

MeisterDrucke. “Art Prints, Paintings & Reproductions.” MeisterDrucke, https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/home.html.

Works Cited:

“History of Temple Bar.” Temple Bar Gateway, 13 Sept. 2021, https://www.thetemplebar.info/history.html. 

“History.” Temple Bar Trust, 30 Aug. 2022, https://templebar.london/history. 

“Temple Bar, London.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Sept. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Bar,_London. 

“Temple Bar, Non Civil Parish - 1393844: Historic England.” , Non Civil Parish - 1393844 | Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1393844?secti...

“Temple Bar.” Temple Bar - Buildings We Manage - City of London, https://web.archive.org/web/20160330024158/https://www.cityoflondon.gov....