This remarkable painted King’s College London crest was recently discovered in
a little-visited store room (NOT part of the Archives storage, I’d like to make
clear). Made of some sort of cast
concrete, it’s approximately a metre wide, nearly a metre high, and extremely
heavy.
The lion standing on his royal crown is detachable, and is
now stored in Archives, after a gentle preliminary clean to remove the worst of
the grime.
We think that it may have stood over a doorway to one side
of the original Strand entrance, although in this black and white photograph
the crest does not appear to be painted
– though that may just be down to layers of London soot.
The figures have suffered some damage over the years: the woman (‘Sancte’) on the left is missing a
hand and part of her nose
and ‘Sapienter’ on
the right looks as though he’s been in a fight.
Despite the dirt and the damage, the crest and its
supporters have a lot of charm, and it would be good to see them cleaned up and
back on display.