1 Poultry EC2

When a range of perfectly respectable Victorian buildings in Poultry including the attractive and appropriate Mappin and Webb building were demolished for no other reason than to enable Peter Palumbo to flex his ego, these charming terracotta reliefs from the shop of Hawes the shirtmakers were happily preserved and erected on the new building.
Made in 1875, they depict Royal Progresses through London. The sculptor was Joseph Kremer, a German who studied in Paris.
The monarchs concerned are:
Top: Edward VI (r1547-1553). The boy king is surrounded by courtiers and preceded by a rather fierce-looking friar on a thin nag, apparently having a confrontation with a citizen. This seems a bit odd - the religious orders had been abolished under his father and he was a staunch Protestant.
Second: Elizabeth I (r1558-1603) carried in a palanquin accompanied by a page carrying something on a cushion.
Third: Charles II (r1660-1685). Charles is announced by trumpeters and welcomed by a lady who seems very obliging. His spaniels frolic at her feet.
Bottom: Victoria (r1837-1901). The Queen rides in a carriage drawn by horses held by top-hatted grooms and escorted by cavalry officers riding very spirited horses.

Savoy Hotel, Strand WC2

The hoardings have come down on the Savoy to reveal the newly cleaned statue of Peter II, Count of Savoy, by Frank Lynn-Jenkins.
With its gleaming steel and glowing gilding, the statue seems entirely at home on the 1929 Art Deco canopy but it was in fact made in 1904 for the hotel extension seen behind. Reusing it was a brilliant stroke.
Count Peter wasn't a count at all when he came to London in the 1240s. He was the seventh of nine sons of the Count of Savoy so his inheritance prospects cannot have seemed too bright. He was, however, the uncle of Eleanor of Provence, who had just married Henry III. Henry made him Earl of Richmond and gave him the site on the north bank of the Thames where he built the Savoy Palace.
Peter finally became Count of Savoy in 1263, when he was already 60 years old.
Frank Lynn-Jenkins carved one of the statues on the facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum and Abundance, a group on Thames House in the City. He left for America in 1919 after a furious row with Cardiff council over the commissioning of sculpture for the new City Hall.

Red Lion Court EC4

This elegant little plaque is the sign of a printer, Abraham Valpy, publisher of classical works such as Stephanus's Greek Thesaurus and the monumental Delphin Classics (all 142 volumes), and founder of the Classical Review. He had his premises in Red Lion Court from 1822 to 1837.
As you might expect from this output, Valpy was a cut above the usual inky-handed artisan, having studied at Oxford where he was a fellow of Pembroke College. So his sign is rather superior too - an antic lamp being filled with oil from a nice little jar and the motto Alere Flammam, or 'Feed the Flame' (of knowledge, that is).

85 Fleet Street EC4

85 Fleet Street was built in 1934 by Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Press Association and Reuters, both of whom coincidentally needed headquarters at the time. The design included a figure known as The Herald by Sir William Reid Dick, who had collaborated with Lutyens on the Midland Bank building in Poultry.
The Herald is an angel sitting on the globe, blowing the trumpet of thrice-distilled truth. The Times liked it but the Newspaper World compared it rather rudely to an American Pentecostal preacher sitting on a melon.
The Herald has gone down in the world since he was made. He was originally placed on the parapet but during the war was brought down to the oculus over the front door so more people could see him. And he was originally gilded (at a cost of £100) but no trace of the gilding survives today.
The keystone over the oculus has a rather jolly baroque cartouche with a knight slaying lies and untruth over a monogram of the letters R and PA surrounded by the electric waves that brought their reports from round the world.

Atlas House, King Street EC2

In Greek mythology, Atlas, king of Atlantis, took part in the rebellion of the Titans against the Gods and as a result was condemned to hold up the heavens for ever. Ancient Greek sculptors took something of a  liberty with the story in the interests of making a strong free-standing figure, and showed him supporting the celestial sphere on his shoulders.

Of course, this was misinterpreted in the Renaissance, when the familiar figure appeared of Atlas holding the Earth on his shoulders despite having nothing to stand on.

Here, Atlas advertised the Atlas Assurance Company. He was carved by Thomas Tyrrell for the firm of architectural masons Farmer and Brindley. He is less muscly than usual, but still succeeds in dominating that part of the street.

The building is the northern extension of the Atlas headquarters, designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1893 in the same style as the original building facing onto Cheapside, which was built by Thomas Hopper in 1834. 

Tyrrell also carved the figures on 82 Mortimer Street. 

On the south side of Cheapside opposite Atlas House, there is an exceptionally attractive Mercers' Maiden high up on the wall of No 67, which dates from 1938.

107 Cheapside EC2

This is the sort of thing that brightens my day every time I find it. It is the keystone of the arch through the Sun Life Assurance building in Cheapside, leading to Honey Lane. And it features a bee buzzing up to a basket of flowers and fruit.
The building was designed by Antony Lloyd and built in 1955. The main entrance is surrounded by signs of the zodiac carved by John Skeaping, but the keystone isn't mentioned in any of the reference books. It looks a bit formal and traditional for Skeaping so perhaps it was commissioned from a mason rather than a sculptor.
Honey Lane was the place where bee keepers lived in medieval London, but they seems to have departed by the 17th century when William Leybourn's survey showed 105 butcher's stalls in the market despite the fact that it was the smallest market in the capital. Was the city already too crowded and polluted for bees to live and work? This stone bee is certainly the only one you see round Honey Lane these days.

Friary Court, Crutched Friars EC3

The Crutched Friars did not hobble about on crutches: they were members of the House of the Holy Cross, and the Latin for cross is crux. They held a staff with a cross and wore a cross on their habit.
The site of their London house is now occupied by one of those monster office blocks that reduces the street to a barren, windblown wilderness. The only redeeming feature is this lovely sculpture by Michael Black, created in 1984.
The two figures are based on Narziss and Goldmund, the abbot and artist from Hermann Hesse's novel.
The habits are carved from the same Swedish red granite used to face the building: the faces, hands and feet are grey Bardiglio marble. One holds a staff, the other a scrip, both bronze. Pevsner calls them 'eerily static'.