Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the

London Wall The London Wall is a defensive wall first built by the Ancient Rome, Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in AD 200, as well as the name of a #modern, modern street in the City of London, England. Roman London was ...

around the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

and one of the six which date back to

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the

River Fleet The River Fleet is the largest of Subterranean rivers of London, London's subterranean rivers, all of which today contain foul water for treatment. It has been used as a culverted sewer since the development of Joseph Bazalgette's London sewe ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

and western England. Beginning in the 12th century, parts of the gate buildings were used as a

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cri ...

, which later developed into

Newgate Prison Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey, just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, the pr ...

Name

It was once thought that Newgate was "New" since it was built after the Roman period, but archaeological evidence has shown that it was of Roman origin; it is therefore possible that the gate was named so when the

Ludgate Ludgate was the westernmost gate in London Wall. Of Roman origin, it was rebuilt several times and finally demolished on 30th July 1760. The name survives in Ludgate Hill, an eastward continuation of Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus and Ludgate S ...

became less used, due to the building of the fourth St Paul's Cathedral in the early medieval period. It was previously known as Chamberlains Gate, there was a landholding referred to as the Chamberlain's Soke lying just outside Newgate, forming part of the ward of

Farringdon Without __NOTOC__ Farringdon Without is the most westerly Wards of the City of London, ward of the City of London, England. Its suffix ''Without'' reflects its origin as lying beyond the London Wall, City's former defensive walls. It was first establis ...

Structure and history

Excavations in 1875, 1903 and 1909 revealed the Roman structure and showed that it consisted of a double roadway between two square flanking guardroom towers. From the 12th century, the gate was used as a prison for debtors and felons. Jack Cade was beheaded publicly in Newgate after the conclusion of his failed rebellion. The notorious

, was later extended to the south on the site of the modern Central Criminal Court on Old Bailey. The gate was demolished in 1767.

Communications and surrounding area

Newgate Street, today part of the A40 London to Fishguard route, is mostly located within the city wall, leading west from

Cheapside Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, England, which forms part of the A40 road, A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St Martin's Le Grand with Poultry, London, Poultry. Near its eas ...

to the site of the old gate, and then continuing onto

Holborn Viaduct Holborn Viaduct is a road bridge in London and the name of the street which crosses it (which forms part of the A40 road, A40 route). It links Holborn, via Holborn Circus, with Newgate Street, in the City of London, England financial distri ...

at the point where the Old Bailey thoroughfare joins to the south and

Giltspur Street Giltspur Street is a street in Smithfield in the City of London, England, running north–south from the junction of Newgate Street, Holborn Viaduct and Old Bailey, up to West Smithfield, and it is bounded to the east by St Bartholomew's ...

to the north. A notable discovery here was a Roman tile inscribed with a disgruntled comment that "Austalis has been going off on his own for 13 days". The

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

continued along

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...

and

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...

, via the Devil's Highway to

Silchester Silchester is a village and civil parish about north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about south-west of Reading. Silchester is most notable for the archaeological site and Roman town of ...

and

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

To the north of the street are the public gardens around the ruins of

Christ Church Greyfriars Christ Church Greyfriars, also known as Christ Church Newgate Street, was a church in Newgate Street, opposite St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. Established as a monastic church in the thirteenth century, it became a parish church afte ...

(bombed during World War II) on the site of a medieval Franciscan monastery. To the south is

Paternoster Square Paternoster Square is a former historic square, renamed from Newgate Market c. 1872, and now a post-war urban redevelopment, owned by the Mitsubishi Estate, next to St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. The area was previously named Patern ...

leading towards

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

Explanatory notes

References

External links