Latest MoLAS publication: Within these walls

16 January 2008

Within these walls: Roman and medieval defences north of Newgate at the Merrill Lynch Financial Centre, City of London (by Jo Lyon)

The latest book in the MoLAS Monograph Series has recently been published. The book reports on the excavations at the site of the new Merrill Lynch Financial Centre which revealed important evidence for Roman and later activity north of Newgate.

Stream channels on the eastern side of the Fleet valley were filled in as early Roman settlement took place along the main east–west road between London and Silchester. The city’s defensive wall was built towards the end of the 2nd century AD and included Newgate.

The defensive ditch north of Newgate was redug in the late Saxon and medieval periods, with the Roman defensive wall repaired to form the City of London’s boundary. The defences influenced the pattern of land use, with the area between Newgate Street and the curve of the city wall to the north chosen as the site of the Greyfriars Friary in 1225. Infilling of the medieval ditch reduced it to a small channel and by the mid 16th century the City’s growth saw the ditch area rented or sold off for new building.

The friary was suppressed during the Dissolution of the monasteries and converted into Christ’s Hospital, a school for orphaned children. The choir of the friary church continued in use as Christ Church until the Great Fire of 1666 and was rebuilt by Christopher Wren in 1674–87.

By the mid 18th century much of the city wall had been demolished. The Giltspur Street Compter prison was constructed here in 1787–91 and 19th-century building works included St Bartholomew’s and Christ’s hospitals. The site was occupied by the General Post Office building for much of the 20th century. Parts of the Roman defensive wall and a medieval bastion have been preserved in the new development.

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