Gog and Magog

8 July 2023

Did a bit of research on Gog and Magog, the figures installed in the Royal Arcade in 1892. Firstly, they come from a medieval tale about the founding of Britain, and there’s a famous pair in the Guildhall in London, on which ours are based. Comparing them, I think hours are better !

But wait there’s more – the ones in London date from 1953, replacing figures from 1708 destroyed in WW2, and those in turn replaced earlier ones destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire of London. So ours were modelled on the 1708 ones, which were much larger and more lively, but why are ours here at all ?

They were part of an installation by the noted clockmaker Thomas Gaunt, who had a shop in the arcade, and naturally put a clock between them and made the figures strike bells. But wait, there’s yet more.

The whole idea was probably taken from Bennett’s clock shop in London, which had yet another set of Gog and Magog, installed above the shopfront in 1846, replaced by new ones in 1879 as part of a new shop design, which struck bells and had a clock between them, as well as a figure of father time – which also features in the Royal Arcade, at the opposite end to G&M. Surprisingly Bennett’s figures still exist, bought by Henry Ford (!) in 1928, and set up in a version of the shopfront in his historic village in Dearborn, Michigan. Quite a back story !

Images go ours, 1953 ones, 1708 ones, then Bennett’s, in London, then the US, all from the internet, except the closeups of our figures via Graeme Butler.