Aldersgate

The wards of London appear to have taken shape in the 11th century, before the Norman Conquest. Their administrative, judicial and military purpose made them equivalent to Hundreds in the countryside. The primary purpose of wards like Aldersgate, which included a gate, appears to be the defence of the gate, as gates were the weakest points in any fortification. The ward initially only included land within the walls, but a degree of growth beyond the gate meant some of the land beyond came under the sway of the City. Boundary markers – bars – were established here and elsewhere with the suburb eventually becoming part of the City. Aldersgate Bars are recorded as early as 1197. A mansion…

The Wall was first built around the year 200, but Aldersgate was not one of the original Roman gates, being added later in the Roman period. The name Aldersgate is first recorded around 1000 in the form Ealdredesgate, i.e. "gate associated with a man named Ealdrād"; the gate probably acquired its name in the late Saxon period. When James VI of Scotland came to England to take the crowns of both England and Scotland in 1603, he entered the City at Aldersgate. Statues of the king were placed both outside (on horseback) and inside (seated on the throne) the gate to commemorate the occasion. The old gate was taken down in 1617, and rebuilt in the same year from a design by Gerard Christmas. The…