Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in
London's former defensive wall. The gate gave its name to the Bishopsgate
Ward of the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
. The ward is traditionally divided into ''Bishopsgate Within'', inside the line wall, and ''Bishopsgate Without'' beyond it. ''Bishopsgate Without'' is described as part of
London's East End
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have u ...
.
The ancient boundaries of the City wards were reviewed in 1994 and 2013, so that the wards no longer correspond very closely to their historic extents. ''Bishopsgate Without'' gained a significant part of
Shoreditch from the
London Borough of Hackney, while nearly all of ''Bishopsgate Within'' was transferred to other wards.
Bishopsgate is also the name of the street, being the part of the originally Roman
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London ('' Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earn ...
(now the
A10) within the traditional extent of the Ward.
The gate
The gate was first built in the
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
era, probably at the time the wall was first built. The road though the gate,
Ermine Street, known at this point as Bishopsgate, was in place long before the wall and the gate.
The gate is traditionally held to be named after
Earconwald __NOTOC__
Earconwald or Erkenwald (died 693) was Bishop of London between 675 and 693.
Life
Earconwald was born at Lindsey in Lincolnshire,Walsh ''A New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 182 and was supposedly of royal ancestry. In 666, he established tw ...
, a 7th-century
Bishop of London
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
(Bishop of the
East Saxons). One of the ward's ancient churches,
St Ethelburga-the-Virgin within Bishopsgate, is dedicated to Eorconwald's sister,
St Ethelburga of Barking, the first Abbess of
Barking Abbey.
In 1471, during the
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the throne of England, English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These w ...
, the Yorkist-turned supporter of the House of Lancaster
Bastard Fauconberg attacked London, trying to force his way across London Bridge and also attacking the eastern gates with a further five thousand men and artillery. Bishopsgate was set on fire and the attackers came close to capturing nearby
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
and with it the city. The attackers were repulsed from both gates with heavy losses, before being chased back to
Bow Bridge and
Blackwall.
The Bishop's Gate was rebuilt by the
Hansa merchants in 1471 in exchange for
steelyard
The Steelyard, from the Middle Low German (sample yard), was the main trading base () of the Hanseatic League in London during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Location
The Steelyard was located on the north bank of the Thames by the outflow o ...
privileges. Its final form was erected in 1735 by the City authorities, but demolished in 1760. This gate often displayed the heads of criminals on spikes. London Wall (which is no longer extant in this sector) divided the ward and road into an intramural portion called Bishopsgate Within and an extramural portion called Bishopsgate Without.
The site of this former gate is marked by a stone bishop's
mitre
The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...
, fixed high upon a building located near Bishopsgate's junction with
Wormwood Street
Wormwood Street is a short street in the City of London which runs between London Wall at its western end and a junction with Bishopsgate and Camomile Street in the east. It is a dual carriageway which forms part of the A1211 route between Bar ...
, by the gardens there and facing the
Heron Tower.
Ward
The ward is notable for its skyscrapers, and is home to the main London offices of several major banks, including
National Westminster Bank
National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 200 ...
and the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Although tens of thousands of people commute to and work in the ward, it has a resident population of only 222 (
2011).
The ward is divided into two parts by the line of the former
London Wall
The London Wall was a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in AD 200, and is now the name of a modern street in the City of London. It has origins as an initial mound wall and ...
and gate which lay just north of
Wormwood and
Camomile Streets.
Bishopsgate Without
''Bishopsgate Without'' corresponds to the parish of
St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. The church is located immediately north of the site of the original Gate on the west side of the road. The church was one of four in medieval London dedicated to Saint Botolph or
Botwulf, a 7th-century
East Anglian saint; three of these were outside city gates, with a fourth near London Bridge and the riverside wharves. The locations result from Botolph being regarded as the
patron saint
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of boundaries, and by extension of trade and travel.
Bishopsgate Without was, from 1247 to 1633, the first home of the
Bethlem Royal Hospital (also known as Bedlam). This psychiatric hospital lay immediately north of St Botolph's church. In the 17th century Bishopsgate Without, together with neighbouring
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...
and
Spitalfields was home to many
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
refugees, many of them weavers.
The former
River Walbrook
The Walbrook is a subterranean river in the City of London that gave its name to the Walbrook City ward and a minor street in its vicinity.
The Walbrook is one of many "lost" rivers of London, the most famous of which is the River Fleet. It ...
, known at this point as ''Deepditch'', ran along the line of modern
Blomfield Street
Blomfield Street is a road in the City of London, close to Liverpool Street railway station. It was known as Broker Row, until 1860.
Setting
The street extends in a SSW-NNE direction from its junction with the road ''London Wall'' in the south to ...
, forming the western boundary of Bishopsgate Without, with the
Moorfields (in
Coleman Street Ward) beyond it. The Blomfield Street section of the river was the focal point of the
Walbrook Skulls; the result of the deposit of large quantities of decapitated Roman-era human skulls into the water. These are still often uncovered during building work.
Notable buildings include:
*
Broadgate Tower
*
Heron Tower
*
Liverpool Street station
*
Great Eastern Hotel
*
Bishopsgate Institute
*
Broadgate Estate
Broadgate is a large, office and retail estate in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London. It is owned by British Land and GIC and managed by Savills.
The estate is in part of the eastern City fringe, outside the line of the ...
*
Dirty Dick
Nathaniel Bentley (-1809), commonly known as Dirty Dick, was an 18th and 19th-century merchant who owned a hardware shop and warehouse in London. He was possibly an inspiration for Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens' ''Great Expectations'', after h ...
's (a 200 year old pub)
Bishopsgate Within
''Bishopsgate Within'' was originally divided into many parishes, each with its own parish church:
St Andrew Undershaft,
St Ethelburga Bishopsgate,
St Martin Outwich
St Martin Outwich was a parish church in the City of London, on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bishopsgate. Of medieval origin, it was rebuilt at the end of the 18th century and demolished in 1874.
Early history
A church of St Martin w ...
,
St Mary Axe and
St Helen's Bishopsgate, now all amalgamated under the last of these. St Helen's is a historic medieval church and former monastic establishment with many ancient funerary monuments and a stained glass window depicting
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
— commemorating a very famous former parishioner who lived in the area in the early to mid 1590s.
Notable buildings include:
*
99 Bishopsgate
*
100 Bishopsgate
*
Tower 42
*
22 Bishopsgate
Ward boundary changes
The 1994 (City), 2003 and 2013 (ward) boundary revisions made fundamental changes to the ancient boundaries of the Ward. The 1994 changes saw ''Bishopsgate Without'' (and with it the City of London) gain a large area from the
Shoreditch area of the
London Borough of Hackney,
The changes made in 2003 and 2013 shifted land between Wards of the city. The effect of this was to transfer nearly all of ''Bishopsgate Within'' (except for a small area surrounding the
Leathersellers' livery hall) to other wards.
[City of London Corporation](_blank)
Ward boundary review 2010 (final recommendations) – see page 15 The ward previously extended much further south, along the Bishopsgate road and Gracechurch Street. At this time ''Bishopsgate Without'' lost a small block of buildings east Blomfield Street to the Broad Street ward.
There were no changes to Bishopsgate's ward boundaries in the 2013 boundary changes.
The revised Ward borders the
London Borough of Hackney to the north, it neighbours
The Portsoken and the
borough of Tower Hamlets in the east. The other neighbours are
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
(southeast),
Coleman Street (west),
Cornhill (south-west),
Broad Street and
Lime Street (south).
Politics
Bishopsgate is one of 25
wards in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
, each electing an
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members ...
to the
Court of Aldermen, and Commoners (the City equivalent of a councillor) to the
Court of Common Council of the
City of London Corporation. Only electors who are
Freemen of the City of London are eligible to stand. On 15 September 2022 the ward elected Kawsar Zaman as its Alderman. He is only the third non-white Alderman in the city's hundreds of years of history, the first
British-Bangladeshi ever to hold the office, and the youngest ever elected to the Court of Alderman.
Street
The street called Bishopsgate (formerly ''Bishopsgate Street''), which takes its name from the Gate, is the main thoroughfare of the Ward. It is a stretch of the originally Roman
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London ('' Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earn ...
(now the
A10) between
Gracechurch Street and
Norton Folgate, taking the name Bishopsgate only within the historical area the Ward.
Although it takes its name from the gate, the road pre-dates the building of the
London Wall
The London Wall was a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in AD 200, and is now the name of a modern street in the City of London. It has origins as an initial mound wall and ...
which was built in the late second or early third centuries. Ermine Street (sometimes called the Old North Road) connected London to
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Lincoln,
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
and other towns and cities.
History
Early history
In the Roman period it was illegal to bury the dead within the city, so cemeteries were established outside the City gates. There were large burial grounds outside Bishopsgate, on both side of
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London ('' Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earn ...
.
The Wards of London appear to have taken shape in the 11th century, before the Norman Conquest. Their administrative, judicial and military purpose made them equivalent to
Hundreds in the countryside. The primary purpose of Wards like Bishopsgate, which included a gate, appears to be the defence of the gate, as gates were the weakest points in any fortification.
The earliest origins of the Wards reach back further than the 11th century but their emergence and evolution is uncertain and any narrative conjectural. The Ward may have developed from the ''Soke of Bishopsgate'', a set of rights, and possibly land, held by the Bishop of London over an area to the east of the
River Walbrook
The Walbrook is a subterranean river in the City of London that gave its name to the Walbrook City ward and a minor street in its vicinity.
The Walbrook is one of many "lost" rivers of London, the most famous of which is the River Fleet. It ...
. The Bishop may have been granted the land and rights in order to promote growth in the under-developed part of the city east of the
Walbrook. Outside the Wall the Walbrook formed the boundary between the ''Soke of Bishopsgate'' to the east and the
Soke of Cripplegate on the other side of the brook.
Bishopsgate may have originally included the area that subsequently became known as
Lime Street Ward.
The Domesday Survey of 1086 did not cover London, but a landholding called Bishopsgate is recorded nearby, this may have been the property later known as
Norton Folgate.
Coaching inns
Bishopsgate had many
coaching inn
The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tr ...
s which accommodated passengers setting out on the Old North Road. Although they survived the
Great Fire of London, they have now all been demolished. These included the Angel, the Black Bull, the Dolphin, the Flower Pot, the Green Dragon, the Magpie and Punchbowl, the White Hart and the Wrestlers. The Black Bull was a venue for the
Queen's Men
Queen Elizabeth's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in English Renaissance theatre. Formed in 1583 at the express command of Queen Elizabeth, it was the dominant acting company for the rest of the 1580s, as the Admiral's Men and the ...
theatrical troupe in the 16th century.
Anthony Bacon moved nearby with his mother in May 1594 and she complained about the plays and interludes at the Bull which might "corrupt his servants".
An inn called the Catherine Wheel (demolished 1911) is commemorated by Catherine Wheel Alley which leads off Bishopsgate to the east. The 17th century façade of Sir
Paul Pindar's House on Bishopsgate, demolished to make way for
Liverpool Street railway station
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the ...
in 1890, was also preserved and can now be seen in the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
. In the 18th century this grand residence became a tavern called Sir Paul Pindar's Head; another notable venue was the
London Tavern (1768-1876). Also demolished (but then re-erected in
Chelsea in 1910) was the old
Crosby Hall, at one time the residence of
Richard III and
Thomas More.
''Communist Manifesto''
''
The Communist Manifesto'' was first printed, anonymously and in German, by the Workers Educational Association at 46 Liverpool Street in Bishopsgate Without in 1848.
Terrorist attack
On 24 April 1993, it was the site of
an IRA truck bombing which killed journalist Ed Henty, injured over 40 people and caused £1 billion worth of damage,
including the destruction of St Ethelburga's church and damage to the
NatWest Tower
Tower 42, commonly known as the NatWest Tower, is a skyscraper in the City of London. It is the fifth-tallest tower in the City of London, having been overtaken as the tallest in 2010 by the Heron Tower. It is the fifteenth- tallest in Lond ...
and
Liverpool Street station. Police had received a coded warning, but were still evacuating the area at the time of the explosion. The area had already suffered damage from the
Baltic Exchange bombing
The Baltic Exchange bombing was an attack by the Provisional IRA on the City of London, Britain's financial centre, on 10 April 1992, the day after the General Election which re-elected John Major from the Conservative Party as Prime Ministe ...
one year before.
St Ethelburgas was rebuilt, functioning not just as a church but also as home to the
St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace charity.
Gallery
File:Copperplate map Bishopsgate.jpg, Bishopsgate and the extramural part of Bishopsgate Street, as shown on the "Copperplate" map of London of the 1550s
File:Bishop's mitre, Bishopsgate, London.JPG, The bishop's mitre
The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...
at Bishopsgate's junction with Wormwood Street
Wormwood Street is a short street in the City of London which runs between London Wall at its western end and a junction with Bishopsgate and Camomile Street in the east. It is a dual carriageway which forms part of the A1211 route between Bar ...
File:Old Fire station, Bishopsgate - geograph.org.uk - 642255.jpg, A former London Fire Brigade
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the fire and rescue service for London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865, under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. It has 5,992staff, inc ...
station on Bishopsgate (designed by Robert Pearsall), now a supermarket
File:London Bishopsgate geograph-3066429-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg, The southernmost portion of Bishopsgate pictured in 1955, looking north toward the National Provincial Bank
File:Relief on building in Bishopsgate, London 1.JPG, Bas relief on the former National Provincial Bank
File:Relief on building in Bishopsgate, London 2.JPG, From the same building
File:Relief on building in Bishopsgate, London 3.JPG, Overview of another part of the building
See also
*
Fortifications of London
References
External links
Ward map from the Corporation of LondonBishopsgate ward newsletter*
ttp://www.citypubs.co.uk Pubs within the City of LondonBishopsgate Ward Club*
Michael Wood (2003) ''In Search of Shakespeare''. London: BBC Worldwide.
* Mention in
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! by the Beatles: "The celebrated Mr. K. performs his feat on Saturday at Bishopsgate."
St Helen's Bishopsgate
{{City of London gates
Streets in the City of London
London Wall and its gates
Wards of the City of London
Odonyms referring to religion