Following the Wall

For the last 15 years we have been planning to walk around the perimeter of London’s Roman wall. We had a map up in our Woy Woy loo of Roman London and have had lots of time to work out how to do it. And today’s the day! We started at St Pauls’ cathedral. What a magnificent building.

Afer St Pauls we found the site of Ludgate Hill which was one of the original gates into the walled city.Throughout the day Geoff navigated our way through the modern streets using a map of Roman London superimposed onto the modern street scape. It was a real adventure.

Few live in this part of London called The City. It is the financial area of London. We have never seen so many people in suits. Mainly males.

From there we passed the Old Bailey. I was interested to see this as my convict ancestor Henry Mercer was tried here before he was transported to Australia.

Next on our travels was was Greyfriars Church, also known as Christ Church Newgate Street. This was a church in Newgate Street. It was established as a monastic church in the thirteenth century, it became a parish church after the dissolution of the monastery. Following its destruction in the Great Fire of London of 1666, it was rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. Except for the tower, the church was largely destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. The ruins are now a public garden. It is such a poignant reminder of the effects of the war on London.

Not far from here was a Heroes wall which had been erected to tell the stories of ordinary people who had lost their lives saving others. Amazing stories. This is just a small part of the wall.

Then we stumbled across St Botolph Without Aldersgate. There had been a church there for centuries but the present one was only from the late 18th century. But it was obviously Evangelical which is unusual in London. We went in and were invited to stay for a talk and lunch. It was a great experience. It is a congregation of mainly financial workers who together own the church and use it for outreach to other city workers. Most would have their own home churches where they worship on a Sunday but they come together during the week here. I guess there was about 60 there. The

lunch was lovely! The talk was even be􀂂tter. Very practical and encouraging on Christian leadership. The main focus was from Timothy 4: 16 about teachers needing to watch their lives and doctrine closely and persevering and this will ensure they are good leaders. We enjoyed speaking to Hannah Mar􀢢n who was the women’s worker and who is coming out to live in Australia for awhile while her husband goes to More college. We invited her to come and see us.

Now we come to sections of the wall still visible. Most of this has come to light since the bombing of the war and in construction work of new buildings. The wall was started around 200 and was added to or modified by later generations of Londoners. The wall had a number of gates around the outside that led to important Roman roads, leading to other towns in the country. The gates on the wall going clockwise from Ludgate in the west to Aldgate in the east were: Ludgate, Newgate, Cripplegate,

Bishopsgate and Aldgate. Aldersgate, between Newgate and Cripplegate, was added c. 350 and Moorgate, between Cripplegate and Bishopsgate, was built later still, in the medieval period. Some of the gates, though now long gone, are remembered by the areas or roads where the gates stood being named after them.

The foundations seen on the ground are the top west corner of the wall which walled in the existing Roman fort. The wall can be seen running from the square on either side.

The following are segments of the wall still visible throughout the walk.

The wall hunter at work. Every now and then there was a small beautiful public garden. The best thing about this day was that we virtually didn’t see a tourist. Obviously off the tourist track which is strange.

Quite a few ruined churches on the way.

Following the completion of our London wall crawl we headed back to St Paul’s for the Choral Evensong service. Along the way we saw the Monument which was built by Wren as a monument to the Losses caused by the Great Fire of 1666.

Being inside St Paul’s was quite spectacular although we couldn’t understand much because everything was sung just about. But afterwards the bells chimed for over half an hour and the sun was shining on the steps as we sat taking in the view (plus we were too tired to get up). It was just glorious!