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| One of the silver dragons that adorns Holborn Viaduct. |
Anyone that has walked into the Square Mile along one of its main thoroughfares, will have passed by one of the fourteen silver dragons that mark the boundary to the City of London.
The coat of arms of the City of London has two dragons supporting a shield that bears a flag of St George, with a sword in its top left corner. Atop the shield is a knight's helmet and plume, while the motto "Domine dirige nos (Lord guide us)" runs in a ribbon across the bottom. The sword, with its tip pointed upward, symbolises the martyrdom of St Paul, the patron saint of London.
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| One of the original dragons from the London Coal Exchange. |
The City's first silver dragons adorned the London Coal Exchange building, which was situated almost opposite the Old Billingsgate Market. Then, in 1962, the Coal Exchange was demolished due to damage from World War II and the need to widen the road. However, the two 7 feet (2.1 metres) cast iron dragons, that had stood above the entrance on a parapet, were saved. Once they had been cleaned, repaired and painted they were mounted on Portland Stone plinths that are 6 feet (1.8 metres) in height and erected on Victoria Embankment, in October 1963.
Eleven more dragons, which are half-size replicas of these, were then erected at various points around the City of London boundary, during the late 1960s.
