Aldgate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Aldgate (disambiguation).

**Ward of Aldgate**
Ordnance Survey


OS grid reference:	TQ334813
Administration
Local government:	Corporation of London
Region:	London
Country:	England
State:	United Kingdom
Other
Police force:	City of London Police
Ceremonial county:	City of London
Historic county:	Middlesex
Post office and telephone
Post town:	LONDON
Postcode:	EC3
Dialling code:	020
Politics
UK Parliament:	Cities of London and Westminster
London Assembly:	City and East
European Parliament:	London

Aldgate was the easternmost gateway through London Wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the East End. Aldgate is also the name of a street; it runs from Aldgate High Street for about 50 yeards before splitting into Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street. There are only two buildings on the street. To the north is Sir John Cass's school, where a plaque records the former course of London Wall. To the south is a branch of the French insurance company AXA.

[edit] History

A gate at Aldgate was already thought to be spanning the road to Colchester, in the Roman period, when the City Wall itself was constructed. The gateway stood at the corner of the modern Duke's Place; and was always an obstacle to traffic. It was rebuilt between 1108-47, again in 1215 and reconstructed completely in 1607-9. The gate was finally removed in 1761, being temporarily re-erected at Bethnal Green. The name is derived from Ale-gate, literally open to all, as uniquely, no tolls were exacted at this gate.

While he was a customs official, from 1374 until 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer occupied apartments above the gate. The Augustinian Priory of Holy Trinity Aldgate was founded by Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I, in 1108 on ground just inside the gate.

Within Aldgate Ward, a short distance to the north of the gate. Jews settled from 1181, until the expulsion in 1290 by Edward I. The area became known as Old Jewry. Jews were welcomed back by Oliver Cromwell, and once again settled in the area, building London's oldest synagogue at Bevis Marks in 1698.

At the junction of Aldgate High Street, Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street, stood Aldgate pump. From 1700, it was from this point that distances were measured into the counties of Essex and Middlesex. The original was taken down in 1876, and a 'faux' pump and drinking fountain erected several yards to the west of the original, supplied by the New River. In ancient deeds, Alegate Well is mentioned, adjoining the City Wall, and this may have been the source [of water] for the original pump. A section of London Wall can be seen through a window in a nearby office block, on the north side.

1600 print of Aldgate

In 1773, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, the first book by an African American was published in Aldgate after her owners could not find a publisher in Boston.

Aldgate is a ward electing councillors to the Corporation of London. The area around the large traffic roundabout to the East of where the gate stood, is also often referred to as Aldgate (although strictly, this is Aldgate High Street, and extends a short distance into Whitechapel, it is also known occasionally by the epithet 'Gardiners' Corner', in honour of a long disappeared department store).