Free Lectures at Gresham College, Holborn

Earlier this month I went to the London Historians' annual lecture at Gresham College, a stone's throw from Chancery Lane underground station.
I got there early and found the doors weren't open yet so I had a look around the outside spaces at the rear and noticed a modern Mercers Maiden on both sides of the archway to a modern office building.

Sorry for the appalling quality of these snaps – I only had my phone with me and the light was not good.

The stylised modern maiden is shown top left, above. Close to her within the courtyard there is another maiden which looks more like the ones in Covent Garden. Another colourful maiden can be found just as you enter the lecture hall.
In the courtyard there are also carved plaques and date stamps for Watney and Baden Powell.
Go and check them out for yourself when you attend on of the excellent free lectures.
Mercers maidens are the mark of the Mercers Livery Company and can be spotted all over London in some very strange and unexpected places – I must put a collection together soon.