(A SLICE OF HISTORY about A WALLED LONDON)
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
As some of you know, I’m currently writing a novel about time travel. I’ve found that it is easy, being as I am a person with a strong interest in social history, to get ‘dragged down a rabbit hole’ (thus the bunny photo) while undertaking historical research, and this week, mine started with the simple question: ‘Was there originally a wall around London?’ I mean, I was pretty sure I’d heard of such a thing existing, but a question is a question and begs a thorough answer, right?
Here is what I found out (and yes, it did stop me from getting on with my book for over a day…)
The Romans built Londinium on the north bank of the Thames, in a strategic location that made it ideal as a port. The early settlement was (certainly by today’s standards) small, occupying a site around the size of present-day Hyde Park, and a suburb existed south of the river at Southwark, too. The whole settlement was, however, razed during the Iceni revolt under Boudica in 60AD. After Boudica’s defeat, the city was rebuilt, and had some monumental public buildings including a forum and an amphitheatre. It even had piped water!
The origins of the name of the city are unclear, but possibilities include origins in Celtic (‘Llyn Dain’ is Welsh for ‘Pool of the Thames’, for example), although with no written record, we shall never know, and there are several theories of which my Welsh origin possibility is just one.
The city wall was built between approximately 190AD and 225AD, and was one of the largest construction projects in Roman Britain. An estimated 85,000 tons of Kentish ragstone (a hard, grey, sandy limestone), was quarried 70 miles away near Maidstone and shipped via the Medway and Thames rivers to build it.
The completed wall was roughly 2.5 miles long and enclosed an area of 134 hectares (about 331 acres). It was 2-2.6 metres thick at the base and stood around 6 metres high. There was also a ditch up to 1.8 metres deep and 4.8 metres across.
There were gates at Ludgate, Newgate, Bishopsgate, Aldgate and an army fortress gate at Cripplegate. Two further gates were added later: Aldersgate (added around 350AD) and Moorgate (built during Medieval times), making seven gates in total. Initially, no wall was built on the river side, this being completed around 390AD.
The Romans left England in 410AD (to deal with attacks on them by the Visigoths and Vandals), leaving the city uninhabited. From around 500AD, a settlement named ‘Lundenwic’ developed slightly to the west of the abandoned Roman city. Then, in 886, Alfred The Great ‘refounded’ the city within the old Roman walls. The walls were repaired and the city grew. At this time, it was known as Lundenburh, and a Viking attack was defeated there in 994AD.
Following the Norman Invasion in 1066, records show the name of the city being recorded as Lundin, Loundon, Lunden, and Londen, which eventually settled into the current spelling. After the Norman invasion, the city walls underwent substantial work. Gates, towers and bastions (projecting parts of the wall from which to defend) were added. Water gates were added on the river side, too, for the unloading of ships (these included Billingsgate and Bridge Gate) and pedestrian gates were also built (such as Tower Hill Postern). The surrounding ditch was also re-cut in 1213.
By the 11th Century, London had taken over as England’s capital city (before the rise of London as a major city, capitals had included, at various points, Colchester, Winchester, Tamworth and Northampton).
London continued growing and urban development inevitably began to grow beyond the wall. Edward I gave permission to the Dominican Friars (or Black Friars) for the wall to be re-aligned between Ludgate and the Thames, which was done in stages between 1284 and 1320, but the city was already bigger than its old boundary wall.
During the Great Fire of London in 1666, almost all of the medieval city was destroyed, but the wall and gates survived (interestingly, the fire did, in fact, burn beyond the wall to the west).
The seven gates were demolished between 1760 and 1767, and work to demolish walls continued into the 19th Century (although large sections were incorporated into other structures, including The Tower of London).
During The Blitz, parts of the old wall unseen for over 300 years were revealed as the rubble of building destroyed around it were removed.
TODAY, one of the most readily accessed remaining fragments of the wall stands just outside Tower Hill Tube Station. A further surviving section is preserved in the basement at One America Square, and there are remains also in the basement of The Old Bailey (there are various other bits dotted around, too).
As always, I cannot 100% guarantee accuracy of info, but I’m listing a number of sources below so you can do your own ‘digging’ if you wish. I hope you enjoyed discovering some facts about London’s Roman wall.
Sources:
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/architecture/historic-architecture/london-wall
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/london-wall/history/
http://worldcitieshistory.blogspot.com/2013/06/roman-london.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20101213155802/http://britannia.com/history/londonhistory/
https://londonist.com/2014/01/how-london-got-its-name
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/teaching-wiki/the-capital-of-england-before-london#cont-0
This looks interesting, if you want to go and see the route and wall remnants for yourself:
Sian Turner 