Ingot, 2006, Hatton Garden
Hatton Garden is the focus of an area rich in history. It is more than 400 years since one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtiers, Sir Christopher Hatton, built a mansion on land that had been the garden of a great medieval palace.
All the local streets have stories to tell, so we made a large bronze Ingot to be placed on the newly refurbished Johnson Building, to help to narrate some of these through a piece of public art. This lump of metal takes its inspiration from the gold trade and also shows the creation of a new hallmark for the building. Working with Mind Design the Ingot features a series of symbols, each representing a certain historic aspect of the local area.
 |
 |
Mitre
The Mitre represents the old palace of the Bishop of Ely, founded ca. 1300, which once stood here. The palace boasted a vineyard and an orchard, as well as gardens, fountains and ponds. The symbol also refers to the famous Mitre Tavern dating from 1546.
|
Gin Bottle
The population of Holborn swelled in the nineteenth century and slims began to appear in the Hatton Harden area. Gin consumption was rife, not least because of the nearby Gordon’s Distillery. A picture of the slums of Leather Lane can be found in ‘Oliver Twist’.
|
Strawberry
In Elizabethan times, the strawberries grown in Hatton Garden were considered to be the finest in London. In Shakespeare’s Richard III, the Duke of Gloucester remarks to the Bishop: “…I saw good strawberries in your garden there: I do beseech you, send me some of them.
|
Diamond
Since the 1830s, the Hatton Garden area has had an international reputation as London’s jewellery quarter. Diamonds are at the heart of this trade. The London Diamond Bourse at 100 Hatton Garden is one of the places where brokers trade the world’s rough diamonds.
|
Rose and Haystack
The palace grounds and thoroughfare (Ely Place) were let Sir Christopher Hatton through the intervention of Queen Elizabeth I in 1575. The bishop, however, could still walk in his garden. The annual rent of the gatehouse was the one red rose and then stacks of hay.
|
Star of David
The Star of David represents the strong Jewish presence in the area, which has existed locally since the establishment of the jewellery industry. London first developed trading links in the diamonds when the Portuguese Jews moved here in the seventeenth century.
|
Tree Trunk
The preserved trunk of the cherry tree that marked the palace boundary can now be found in a corner of the Mitre Tavern in Ely Court, a tiny passageway off Hatton Garden. It is said that Elizabeth I took a part in a maypole dance around the tree.
|
Computer Cursor
The Hatton Garden area is also noted for its many design and media offices. They thrive in the tightly packed and atmospheric local streets and attract numerous supporting industries. The computer cursor represents the creative organisations in the area today.
|
Bleeding Heart
The bleeding heart relates to the ‘Lady of the Bleeding Heart Yard’. Legend has it that Lady Elizabeth Hatton entered into an alliance with the Prince of Darkness, but was murdered by him while walking in the yard. A stable lad found her heart still pumping blood over the cobblestones.
|
|
