London Wall

The Thing That Made The City
Site Of Missing Gate Found ?
The discovery of any new facts about London Wall interests a very wide public, far beyond the half million annual visitors to Tower Hill.
Without the wall there would have been
no city, nor any of the forms and ceremonies with which the City of London, within the greatest capital of the world, is popularly associated.
But London Wail has even wider implications. While it still stood, eight gates formed its main points of entrance; Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate, Ludgate and Billingsgate.
These names are engraved each year deeper in the life of London and will never be erased.
The Postern Gate
Only one name is missing from the list —the ancient Postern Gate. This stood on the main line of east and west traffic, leading to the fields that bordered the Thames between the Tower and Aldgate.
London's old place-names die hard. So we have " London Wall " itself, and " Bishopsgate Within " and " Without" (the Wall]. After Postern Gate fell it was replaced by houses on Tower Hill, leaving the name " Postern Row." All traces of "Postern Row " were swept away by the new approach road to Tower Bridge in 1894.
The excavations which the comnzittee of Tower Hill Improvement have authorised have already laid bare the foundations of a Roman tower. Jr is possible that we have here remains of a predecessor of the vanished mediceval Postern Gate.