Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Temple Bar Monument
A statue of a griffin, a mythological beast with an eagle's wings and a lion's body, marks
the official border between the City of Westminster and The City of London. The Queen,
who presides over Westminster, does not pass this point without ceremonial permission of
The City's Lord Mayor. The relief at its base shows Queen Victoria submitting to this ritu-
al in 1837.
• Cross the border, leaving Westminster and entering The City. Ahead on the left (194
Fleet Street) is The Old Bank of England pub—a former bank with a lavish late-Victorian
interior that serves lunches to the 9-to-5 crowd. (To imagine a fancy 19th-century bank,
pop inside.) Up a few storefronts, on the right side of the street, look above a beauty shop
to find an old building with black-framed, stained-glass bay windows.
Prince Henry's Room (17 Fleet Street)
This half-timbered, three-story, Tudor-style building (1610) on Fleet Street is one of the
few to survive the Great Fire. In Shakespeare's day, the entire City was packed, rooftop
