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Discovering the lost City

By Nick Curtis, Evening Standard  26.09.08

We all know the old London Bridge of 1831 was re-erected in the Arizona desert but did you know that the tower of Christopher Wren’s demolished All Hallows Church in Lombard Street now stands on the Chertsey Road in Twickenham? Or that sundry bits of old Billingsgate Market and the ancient Merchants’ Livery Hall in Cheapside fetched up in Swanage? Or that the IRA-bomb-damaged façade of the Baltic Exchange is soon to be resurrected in Tallinn, Estonia?

An exhibition at the Guildhall tracks these and other artefacts that began life in the City of London but ended up — either through sale, theft, or the need to conserve them — elsewhere. It has been organised to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the City’s Guide Lecturers Association by one of their number, Robin Michaelson, who was first inspired to track down errant Square Mile paraphernalia by the return to London in 2004 of the original Temple Bar, which had previously been exiled for years to a park in Hertfordshire.

As well as architectural features, Michaelson and his colleagues have identified and photographed countless statues and church interiors that have been relocated, City clocks that are still working in Beijing’s Forbidden City, in Spain and in Latvia, and the bells of St Dunstan-in-the-East, which now ring out over the Napa Valley’s Sterling Winery.

One of the furthest-travelled artefacts — and one of the few small enough to be put on display — is a commemorative paperweight made from part of the roof of Temple Bar after it was demolished in 1878, and dug up this century in a suburban garden in Wellington, New Zealand.

One of the pleasing things about this exercise is the sense that it will lead to more discovery — that visitors will be inspired to identify the new locations of other long-lost pillars, clocktowers and arches (one from Blackfriars monastery has been found in the garden of Croydon’s Selsdon Park Hotel).

Oh, and the biggest structure ever to leave the City of London? It’s the Prudential Building in High Holborn. Thanks to a boundary revision, it is now in Camden.

Until 9 November. Open Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 11am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm. Admission £2.50, free after 3.30pm Mon-Thurs and all day Friday (020 7332 3700, www.guildhall-art-gallery.org.uk).

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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