Look up. Guarding the Royal Arcade, giants Gog and Magog stand on either side of the impressive Gaunt’s clock at the Little Collins Street end of the arcade. Some mystery surrounds their history. Sources differ as to whether the giants were carved in London or Melbourne, and whether they were erected in the arcade in 1870 or 1892. [We can still follow a few leads on this if you want us to].

Melbourne’s favourite giants were carved with great skill by Mortimer Godfrey, who reduced the copies to the height of 7 feet from the originals’ 14 feet. Erected by a turret clock maker named Fritz Ziegler, Gaunt’s Gog-Magog clock was based on one existing in London. The striking of the bells was discontinued for a time because of the noise but has since resumed.

In the myth of Gog and Magog. Gog carries a ‘morning star’ (looking like a mace and chain) and his brother, Magog stands like an ancient Roman soldier with a halbert (spear-topped battleaxe) in hand. As the story goes, England was peopled by cave-dwelling giants when the Ancient Britons first arrived there. The Britons refused to live sensibly in dark, damp caves like the native giants did and preferred to build houses to found the city of London. This apparently so incensed one of these giants, Gog, that he waged war on the invaders. The shrewd Magog sided with the Britons, whom he thought all the giants could learn from.

After Gog made an unsuccessful attack on London, his brother offered him a choice. Gog could either join Magog in the ancient palace (later the site of the Guildhall) to guard the city, or fight to the death. "Gog’s answer was to whirl his morning star and rush upon Magog. But Magog was armed with a good, stout halbert, provided by the Britons, and he smote his brother, hip and thigh and laid him low." [Centenary Gazette, 1968]

However, there is a happy ending. The Britons helped Magog to nurse his brother back to health and, in gratitude, Gog joined Magog as co-guardian of the people of London. Similarly, Melbourne’s Gog and Magog keep careful watch over the Royal Arcade.