Gates of the City of London

by Alan Brooke

In this book, author Alan Brooke highlights the historic gates of the City of Cripplegate, Aldgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Ludgate, Newgate and Moorgate. Originating in Roman times, they remained until they were all demolished between 1760 and 1767. Blue plaques mark six of their sites and a Bishop's mitre on a building shows where Bishopsgate once stood.The main focus of the book examines the history of the gates with chapters devoted to each one. A shorter section offers a resume of some of the watergates on the River Thames, including Billingsgate and Bridge Gate, where goods were unloaded from ships. Additionally, there were pedestrian-only gates such as Tower Gate and the postern gate at the Tower of London. There were also the Bars, the most famous of which is Temple Bar, which can still be seen at Paternoster Square.Illustrated throughout, with archive material, photographs of present-day locations and a map, ‘Gates of the City of London’ provides an important addition to the many books on London's rich and diverse history.

Genres: London

96 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2022

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this brief history of the gates (primarily in the Roman or later London walls). Also included are water gates, bars and posterns. Seven of the gates were from Roman times and all were for defense but the author describes other purposes such as keeping the riff raff out especially in times of peasant and lordly rebellions and repelling people with plague or leprosy, having something to lock at nightly curfew, collection spots for tarrifs on incoming goods, homes for guards and sometimes special people (Chaucer lived for a time in Aldgate), and jails. They were put over roads coming in and out of the city, north, west and east. London bridge served as the southern gate. All the gates at one time or another were decorated with heads of traitors and other reprobates as a warning to mind your manners in London.

Brooke differentiates between gates, posterns, bars but all had the same basic purpose. There are no gates existing but Temple Bar remains in a slightly different place. There are often blue plaques at their former sites and Brooke has many good photos as well as maps and drawings. All the gates disappeared by the 18th century. They had become barriers to increased traffic and development. Pieces of Roman wall can still be seen here and there and this book would be a good guide for walking the old walls and getting a feel for the neighborhoods that once had hospitals, inns, gardens and often still have significant churches at gate locations.