The tower projecting over Cheapside contains the famous Bow Bells and supports a majestic belfry (1671-1680). A copper dragon ridden by a tightrope walker serves as a weathervane 72 m up from the ground. The Romanesque crypt has the original columns with cubic capitals where the arches (the Bows)n have given their name to the Church and to the High Court or the Archdiocese of Canterbury, the Court of Arches which has met here since the 12C.

It was not until the reign of Henry VIII that the same coinage was used throughout most of the realm. The Royal Mint, installed in the Tower of London in the 16C, was transferred in 1811 to this Classical style building, before being moved to South Wales in 1968. The site of the Royal Mint has been redeveloped and excavations have uncovered the remains of a 14C Cistercian abbey.

The Great Priory of England was destroyed in 1546 on Royal orders after the assets of the Templars had enriched it when they were dissolved. Only the door was kept. The 16C guardhouse, flanked by three storey towers, was the south entrance to the Priory. The Great Priory Church used to stretch out further towards the west. Under the low vaults of the 12C crypt, which is the only remnant of the original Priory, are the statues of a Spanish grandee and the recumbent figure of the last Prior.

The Jubilee Gardens commemorated twenty-five years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. A 1985 bronze by I. Walter is dedicated to the International Brigades; another, by Alexander (1980), is called Jubilee Oracle.