Roman ruins of the gateway to the Cripplegate Fort were uncovered in the 1950s.

Remains of the West Gate of Old Londinium’s Roman Fort exist within a car park in the City of London

There aren’t many Roman remains visible in London today, with most destroyed over the centuries by evolution of building and war. In the early centuries of the 1st Millennium AD, the area we know today as the City of London was home to a population of 60,000 people. Although provincial by today’s city standards, Londinium was a bustling centre of trade and industry and included a Basilica, Forum, Amphitheatre, Temples, Bath houses and a Fort.

Remains of the North Turret and Guard Room

Roman London had a tricky start and was razed to the ground by Boudica, queen of the Celtic Iceni tribe in 60/61AD, when it had only been established around 20 years prior. The invading Romans were undeterred and rebuilt, creating a stone fort just outside the main town in the north east around 110AD. Built in what we know as the Barbican area today, the Cripplegate fort was home to the city garrison with an estimated 1,000 soldiers.

Between 190 and 225AD, the north and west walls of the Fort were incorporated into the new London Wall, part of an extensive programme of public works. The new wall, made of mostly Kentish ragstone, enclosed the city from Tower Hill to Blackfriars and was over 3 kilometres long and surrounded by a defensive ditch. If you wanted to enter Londinium, you had to do so via one of the main gates: Aldersgate, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Ludgate and Newgate. Meanwhile, the Fort had two gates on the north and west, with remains of the latter still visible.

Today, what’s left of the West Gate is protected in a locked room in a car park in the City. I recently had the chance to visit the ruins on a tour by the Museum Of London. The remains were discovered in 1956 during extensive excavation and rebuilding after the City was seriously damaged during the Blitz. You can see the foundations and lower parts of the Fort Wall, North Turret and Guard Room and the Central Pier of the Double Gateway. Parts of the South Turret were excavated at the time, but were not preserved. There is also a scale model of how the gate would have looked in its heyday.

• The Museum Of London run occasional tours of the Western Gate ruins. Keep an eye on the MOL’s events page for dates and booking.

A scale model of what the West Gate of the Cripplegate Fort is likely to have looked like

A map of Roman London by Walter Thornbury from ‘Old and New London’, 1873.
Image from British Library/Wikimedia Commons.

Read about the history of the nearby Aldersgate or Ludgate.

For more of Metro Girl’s history posts, click here.

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