Victoria Embankment Dragons - EC4

I have written before about some of the (many) dragons in the City of London - my favourite being the amazing weather vane on top of St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside.  Once you start looking for dragon imagery in the square mile it seems to be everywhere - but the dragons you certainly can't miss are those welcoming you (or warning you not to enter?) at the boundaries of the City of Westminster and the City of London.  These two magnificent specimens are located on the Victoria Embankment and once guarded the entrance to the Coal Exchange in Lower Thames Street.  I am seriously thinking about creating a dragon walking tour of London and I think these two fellas would be a good place to start.

Fleet St Dragon - EC4/WC2

I do love a good London dragon (look around people, they're everywhere!) and after the weather vane on St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, the  handsome specimen on a plinth in the middle of Fleet St is a favourite.  It stands at Temple Bar, the point where the City of London becomes the City of Westminster (hence the two postcodes) and also marks where Fleet St morphs into The Strand.  Handily it is also really close to Coffee by the Clock coffee cart so you can sip a primo flat white whilst gazing at this fine statue. 

St Mary-le-Bow dragon - Cheapside EC2

OK so I have to admit about having a thing about dragons (**cue remaining 10 readers of blog closing browser and deleting bookmark...**) - stay with me here, not in a Dungeons and Dragons way (not that there is anything wrong with that) although I did read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy books when I was a youngster (stop judging!).  If you take the time to look around, particularly in the City there are dragons everywhere (check out this guy's site - he knows what I'm talkin' about).  Obviously crazy conspiracy theorists believe there is some sort of symbolism in all these dragons and that people in power around the world are actually reptilian overlords in human disguise - I wouldn't go that far, but try dragon spotting in the City sometime, you'll be amazed.  In fact I am going to do a series of my favourite London dragons - so I thought I would start with my absolute favourite, the nine-foot long golden dragon weather-vane on top of the Wren church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside.  Dating from the late 1600s this weather- vane looks enormous, even from street level and I love seeing it from a distance and from different angles - you can actually see the fiery jet coming out of its mouth from a long way away.  Just to show you how obsessed I am about this dragon, I actually wrote a short story which featured it - before you ask, I will not be posting the story on this blog.  Anyway - next time you are stomping down Cheapside, perhaps heading for City Caphe and a super-tasty bahn-mi take a moment, look up and admire London's coolest dragon.