Go to the Flickrized version of the above photo to see it in its full(er) glory. This trio of elongated lions grace the 51st Street entrance of the British Empire Building, within the Rockefeller Center complex of structures in Manhattan. A unique look, worthy of my stopping for a few seconds to cameraphone it.

There’s surprisingly little info about this specific architectural feature online; from what I could find:

This was created by Lee Lawrie, a German-born sculptor who also created the famous statue of Atlas across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Lawrie (1877–1963) did more work than any other artist at Rockefeller Center, including the nine allegorical figures (under the royal arms) of the industries of the British Empire.

The three lions are heraldry symbols, representing the three lions of England (that is just England, not the England-Scotland-Ireland union of Great Britain, which I’d assumed at first). I could dig into that further, but I’d rather just leave this as it lies.