It takes some imagination to construct an 1800-year-old wall long buried (or destroyed). The Museum of London's ceramic plaques help. Here's Plaque #5's depiction of the Aldgate gateway in Roman days. Even then it was the route to Colchester:
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Just outside the walls on the upper right is an old cemetery. Like many Roman city gates, this had a double arch. Often one of these arches would be stoned up over the ensuing years as commerce faded post-Roman Empire. (From the appearance of this picture, the Brits were driving on the left even then!) Besides defense, these gates could be used to collect taxes on those bringing goods into the city. This Roman tower stood until the middle ages when it was rebuilt twice, the second time in 1215. Afterward, its upstairs apartment housed its most celebrated resident, the poet Chaucer, starting in 1374. For 12 years (a very long time for that job) he served as Comptroller of Customs for the port of London; given his prolific writings during that time, he probably wasn't all that busy doing customs business.
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The gate at Aldgate was finally torn down in 1761 to improve traffic flow. The name Aldgate was derived from Ale-gate -- a gate for all since tolls were not charged here. The Museum of London's Plaque #5 is embedded in the wall of the red-bricked John Cass School to the right. This elementary school is funded by John Cass's educational foundation. (He was a 17th century politician.) This is one of only two buildings on the short (50 yards) Aldgate Street. Note the dome peaking out at top. This is the 30 St. Mary's AXE Building. This building stalked us throughout our walk and we'll discuss it at the end.
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The picture below shows how the 30 St. Mary AXE building overwhelms this area.
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At right is one of the original four London churches near the walls named for St. Botolph. As the patron saint of travelers, his churches would be near city gates. Today two are left, both on the city wall walk tour. This one is St. Botolph without Aldgate (meaning it's on the outside of the city wall near Aldgate.) It now houses an urban- tolerant congregation. St. Botolph's was under reconstruction while we were there. The original (1418) church survived the great London Fire of 1666 but by 1740 was so dilapidated it was torn down and replaced by the present building. In 1965 it was severely damaged by fire and subsequently remodeled. (This after surviving World War II bombings that deposited an unexploded bomb on the roof near the organ). Worse has happened here. Early novelist Daniel Defoe (who was married here) describes the great plague of 1665 when 5000 bodies were buried in a pit in the church's graveyard. The tower we see houses eight fine Whitechapel Bell Foundry bells. Whitechapel also made the Big Ben bell and America's Liberty Bell. |
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Below is a side view of St. Botolph without Aldgate. The neighborhood is now primarily inhabited by Muslim and Jews (who worship at the synagogue nearby; we'll discuss in the next panel).
Trivia question for those with the typical American expertise in geography: If greater London is the most populous city in the UK (and in Europe for that matter), what's the smallest? Answer below:
This is almost a trick question. The City of London is a distinct municipal entity, confined to the approximately square mile area within the old Roman Walls and has under 10,000 residents at night, (during the day, it is Europe's largest financial district, employing about a million people). This makes the City of London the second smallest British city in both size and population. (St. David's in Wales is the smallest.) The Square Mile has been its own entity for a long time, even before William the Conqueror -- and even he gave the English some rights to the place (which was rare for the invading Normans to do.) |
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