Statue: King Edgar
Erection date: 21/11/1990
King Edgar (959 - 75) granted this derelict land to thirteen knights on condition that they each perform three duels, one on land, one below ground, one on the water. These feats having been achieved, the king gave the knights, or cnihtengild, certain rights over a piece of land 'from Aldgate to the place where the bars now are, toward the east, on both sides of the lane, and extended it towards the gate now known as Bishopsgate in the north, to the house of William the Priest ... and to the south to the Thames as far as a horseman riding into the river at low tide can throw a lance'.
This sculpture by Denys Mitchell, commisssioned by the Standard Life Assurance Company, commemorates the cnihtengild and was unveiled by the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Sir Alexander Graham GBE DCL on 21st November 1990.
The plaque with this text utilizes an unusually interesting script, reminiscent of that on ancient manuscripts.
Site: King Edgar & David Ritchie (2 memorials)
EC2, Devonshire Square
From London Gardens Online: "Cutlers Gardens, now renamed Devonshire Sq. is an office development with generous landscaping on the historic site of East India Company Warehouses ... The knights gave up the land when the Holy Trinity Priory was founded at Aldgate in 1108, and the monks used part of the site for their convent garden." More on this sculpture and the history of the area at London Details.
The knights' land is now known as Portsoken, one of 25 wards in the City of London.
At Waymarking we read that "The statue used to be mounted in the centre of the large square on a slowly revolving turntable. It has now been moved to a fixed location a little aside."
2017: This horse just won't stand still. Londonist reports that it has moved from Cutlers Gardens, where we photographed it, to the west end of Devonshire Square, so we moved our pin there.
