The Temple Bar, Hertfordshire. Report on the Archaeological Investigation of Temple Bar During its Dismantling.

Oxford Archaeology (OA) has carried out archaeological and historical analysis of the Temple Bar in advance of, and during, its dismantling for reconstruction on the new Paternoster Square development in central London. The work was commissioned by Freeland Rees Roberts Architects on behalf of the Temple Bar Trust. Temple Bar was shown to include substantial amounts of original fabric on its exterior from the original 17th century gateway. Of considerable interest were several lengths of iron bar-chain across the tops of both the main and postern arches. These held the voussoirs in compression further reinforcing them. The fabric used on the interior room and over the arches dated from the 19th-century reconstruction at Theobalds Park along with the Lodge building, the staircase to the upper room and the added buttresses on the western side. Although for a while the entrance road into the park passed through the gateway, the Bar seems to have functioned more as a classical folly and space for entertaining guests to the main house, rather than simply as a gateway too the estate park. Temple Bar has now been removed from this location and once more constructed in London, where it forms one of the southern entrances to the newly developed Paternoster Square to the north of St Paul’s Cathedral. The Lodge building was shown to be a small gatehouse, entered from the west, with two ground floor rooms, an annexe to the rear containing a bathroom, and a possible attic room or crawl space. There was at least one fireplace heating one of the ground floor rooms leading into a central chimney. The Lodge has not been retained