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 | Art Treasure of London: This mooring on Victoria Embankment is more ornamental than practical: river craft are not allowed to tie up on this stretch of the Thames. Lions are a familiar decorative theme in London. The 'king of beasts' is to be found all over the city, sleeping on buildings, guarding Nelson in Trafalgar Square or lazily watching the world pass by on top of gateposts. click to open  |  | Art Treasure of London: Two great bronze sphinxes guard Cleopatra's Needle on Victoria Embankment. Designed by George Vulliamy, who based them on statues from the reign of Thothmes III, they were placed at thefoot of the monument in 1882. The obelisk, one of a pair erected at Heliopolis, c.1450 BC, was a Napoleonic War trophy later presented to Britain by Mohammed Ali, the Turkish Viceroy of Egypt. When the 3,500 year-old, rose-pink granite Needle was unveiled on 12 September 1878, a passer-by is said to have remarked it was 'the oldest thing in London'. click to open |  | Art Treasure of London: The reliefs on the Albert Memorial were carved in situ by H. H. Armstead and J. B. Philip who included only one living person -Scott, its designer. These two sixteenth and seventeenth-century architects are Andrea Palladio (with the dividers) and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. Armstead sculpted the poets, musicians and painters; Philip the architects. By 1875, three years after completion of the work, the reliefs had become stained: the suggestion that they be covered with glass to preserve them has never been adopted. click to open |  | Art Treasure of London: During her long widowhood, Queen Victoria made sure no-one forgot her husband. The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, a few yards from the site of the Great Exhibition which he organized in 1851, is everything the Prince did not want. He dreaded the idea of a monument, fearing 'if (as is very likely) it became an artistic monstrosity ... it would upset my equanimity to be permanently ridiculed and laughed at in effigy.' Most of Sir George Gilbert Scott's elaborate, altar-like memorial, which the Queen chose, is overdone but the podium frieze is extremely fine. Carved in marble are figures of 169 painters, sculptors, poets, musicians and architects whom the Victorians considered the most eminent in history. The group illustrated are musicians-Rossini, Monteverde, Carissimi, Palestrina, St Ambrose and, seated, the tenth- century Benedictine monk, Guido d'Arezzo. click to open |  | click to open |  | Art Treasure of London: An armada sails down The Mall: each cast-iron lamp post is surmounted by a galleon, to act as a reminder of Britain's naval supremacy. click to open |  | Art Treasure of London: Richard I (1157-99), a man considered the epitome of chivalry, is romantically nicknamed Coeur de Lion. He went to the Third Crusade and on his way home was captured and held to ransom. The Jews, however, do not have a high opinion of the King. In 1189, they were banished from his coronation banquet in the Palace of Westminster and then massacred. Richard spent only about a year of his life in England and could not speak the language. His second and last visit to his English kingdom was in 1194. He died of wounds received attacking the Castle of Chalus at Aquitaine. This fine Victorian equestrian statue of the eldest surviving son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine is by the Italian-born Royal Academician, Baron Carlo Marochetti. It stands outside the present Palace of Westminster. On the plinth, a basrelief shows the Crusaders attacking the gates of Jerusalem. click to open |  | Art Treasure of London: Henry VIII, England's most colourful sovereign, was born in the royal palace at Greenwich in 1491. In fifty-six years he had more homes than any other king. Three - St James's Palace, Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle-are still in use. His only memorial in London is this statue in a niche above the gateway of the city's oldest charitable institution, St Bartholomew's Hospital. In view of the role he played in the Reformation, this religious site may seem odd. But although the adjacent Augustinian priory was dissolved, the hospital managed to struggle on, and in 1546, at the request of Sir Richard Gresham, a wealthy City merchant, it was refounded and endowed by the King. The stone statue, commissioned in 1702, is thought to be the work of the sculptor Francis Bird. click to open |  | Art Treasure of London: Charles II was given this statue of himself by Grinling Gibbons (gilded originally but later bronzed) in 1676. It has stood at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, since 1692. Charles, inspired by Les Invalides in Paris, founded the retreat for army veterans. click to open |  | Art Treasure of London: A gargoyle, one of six, juts from the end of the triple gable over the north porch at Westminster Abbey. The statues and foliage were renewed by Victorian craftsmen c.1875-1890. In the centre doorway, Christ the King surmounts the twelve apostles, and below is a figure of the Virgin and Child. click to open |
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