The London Wall

Inspector of Ancient Monuments at Historic England, Jane Sidell, leads a walk exploring the historic city walls of London.

London Wall, the Roman and medieval city wall, survives in places as upstanding and below-ground remains across the City. The London Wall was essential to the protection of London from the Roman period until far into the Middle Ages and played a key part in determining the shape and development of the city.

This walk will take in the line of the Roman Fort, showing the scale of the Fort which was relatively small for a city. It will also look at how the Fort and City wall was re-used in the medieval period, when defensive bastions were added, some of which still survive in the Barbican estate. The walk will include the subterranean section of London Wall, hidden beneath the road currently named London Wall, and end at the recent development of London Wall Place which has opened up one of the finest surviving stretches of the wall, incorporating the earliest crenellations in London.

The wall linked the major routeways into London, with gateways being constructed at the points of entry at Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Newgate and Ludgate. Parts of London Wall still remain and are crucial when discussing the defining of ‘boundaries’ within the capital’s history.