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London Wall Walk

Modern London is a sprawling metropolis, but back when the Romans constructed their city of Londinium, it was much smaller (around a square mile). After it was sacked by Boudicca in 60 CE, the Romans wisely decided to fortify the city, should any of the upstart locals try to rebel again. They built a five-metre high wall, with ditches two metres deep in front of it. These lasted nearly intact for about a thousand years, after which the medieval Londoners used the Roman construction as the base for their walls. By the 18th Century though, the walls around the City of London had fallen into a state of disrepair, and large sections were demolished to make way for newer roads and buildings.

However, some sections were preserved, either deliberately or by chance. In the 1980s, the Museum of London created a series of plaques to guide people along the route of the walls to see these remnants, although some of these have since vanished, mostly due to new building developments. With a bit of research beforehand though, it is still possible to follow most of this route today.

The walk begins at Tower Hill, with the remains medieval gatehouse associated with the Tower of London, and heads north past one of the largest, and highest sections of Roman wall still visible, complete with a more modern statue of the Emperor Trajan. Another section is then found in a car park at the back of a hotel, before the remnants disappear for a while. However, there are still a few reminders of the old walls, as it’s at this point that blue tiles begin to appear, marking the sites of the old city gates, the first being Aldgate.

The route soon reaches the aptly named road of London Wall, where the ruins begin to show themselves again – a section by a church, another by a modern livery hall – along with further plaques to the old gates. Surprisingly, some of the best-preserved pieces are in the Barbican estate, surrounded on all sides by the brutalist architecture, in a mash of old and modern London that just works.

There’s another remnant by the Museum of London, and then a huge section next to the Plaisterers’s Hall on what is sometimes described as London’s last remaining undeveloped bomb site – the wall was only discovered when the buildings above were hit during WWII. It’s now home to several bee hives. The Museum of London’s original walk ended around the corner at the site of Aldersgate, but to complete the course, one has to walk southwards towards the Old Bailey for the site of Newgate, and then to Ludgate Circus for, well, the site of Ludgate!