Your wisdom you choose as a station most meet
For your emblem the narrowest part of the street,
Air your crotchet at will
In the Common Coun-cil,
And reply to the Thunderer’s wrath, my boy,
That the best of all modes
To widen one’s roads
Is to steal a few yards from the path, my boy.
From The Jingoldsby Legends. By Jonas Jingoldsby, Esquire. Published at 84, Fleet Street, London, about 1882.
After many years of discussion, it was decided to remove Temple Bar, principally because it interfered with the traffic, but the City authorities, egged on by a nobody who shall be nameless, decided to erect a monument in its place. Hence the hideous Griffin obstruction which it was said cost London £12,000; it was so detested and ridiculed that for a long time after its erection two constables had to guard it night and day, or it would probably have been demolished. As it was, great damage was done to it on several occasions, but it still stands, a costly monument of toadyism, folly, and bad taste.