Plaque

This complex of buildings was created to house the Guildhall School of Music, who had outgrown their premises at Aldermanbury. Designed by Sir Horace Jones, it was opened in December 1886 and the school remained here until April 1977 when it moved to the Barbican.
One of the windows has a delightful jester's head on the keystone.

Each of the five oculi on the first floor are heavily decorated and surmounted with a name carved in stone which read, left to right: Tallis, Gibbons, Purcell, Arne, Sterndale-Bennett.