You'll soon be seeing this old crest everywhere.
It's the symbol of the Greater London Council (GLC), which looked after London's administration between 1965 and 1986. When Margaret Thatcher abolished the GLC in that year, the symbol fell out of use. Now, it's set to make a comeback.
Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has successfully lobbied for permission to use the device as the official logo of the current administrative body, the Greater London Authority (GLA). It's going to be popping up in all his communications, and probably on buildings and infrastructure too.
The Mayor had to petition the King himself (via the College of Arms) to gain permission. That's how seriously heraldry is taken. We'll no doubt get a pedant or two on Facebook slapping our wrist for the reckless interchangeability of 'logo', 'crest' and 'device' in this article. But we're not as bad as the BBC, which featured the wrong coat of arms in its coverage:
The new/old logo is fairly simple, but includes a number of references to our city. The blue and white waves are a representation of the River Thames, which is never blue and barely wavy. The golden crown represents the Anglo-Saxon roots of modern London (the Romans came first, but London's place names, customs and laws owe more to medieval times). The red background, meanwhile, is a nod to the historic county of Middlesex, which once oversaw much of central London.
2025 marked a quarter century of the current administrative body, the GLA. A spokesman noted the timing: "This transfer is an important moment as we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the GLA, recognising the important history of devolved Government in the capital."
Give it a few years and we bet people will be flying this as a flag of identification with London, rather than the St George of England.
