If you walk along the Victoria Embankment, take a look at the wall beside the river. You can peer over the wall perilously close to the edge but that is not a very practical idea. If you stand at Cleopatra’s Needle or the Air Force Memorial there are safe balconies with stone balustrades where it is quite easy to see the stone wall beside the Thames. You will see a row of large lions’ heads, cast in bronze, that line the side of the Embankment. They were sculpted by Timothy Butler for of Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s Victorian sewage works programme in 1868-70.

The lions who keep watch along the Thames in Central London, holding mooring rings in their mouths, play an interesting role as a flood warning system for superstitious Londoners, keen to keep an eye on water levels in the Thames.

Black Isle Bronze was asked to repair, cast and in many places replace these wonderful historic works. Every effort was made to capture the existing detail, and match the 150 year old patina.