Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its

defensive wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the

Moorfields Moorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting like a dam, ...

, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall. The gate was demolished in 1762, but gave its name to a major street, ''Moorgate'', laid out in 1834. The area around the street and around

Moorgate station Moorgate is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station on Moorgate in the City of London. Main line railway services for Hertford, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage and Letchworth are operated by Great Northe ...

is informally also referred to as ''Moorgate''. The Moorgate district is home to many financial institutions and has many notable historic and contemporary buildings. Moorgate station was the site of the Moorgate tube crash of 1975, when a

Northern City Line The Northern City Line is a commuter railway line in England, which runs from Moorgate station to Finsbury Park in London with services running beyond. It is part of the Great Northern Route services, and operates as the south-eastern branch ...

train failed to stop and hit a brick wall killing 43. This resulted in systems, known as Moorgate control, being installed on the Underground in order to stop trains at dead-ends.

The gate

The earliest descriptions of Moorgate date from the early 15th century, where it was described as only a

postern A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern ...

in the London city wall. Located between

Bishopsgate 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 ward is traditionally divided into ''Bishopsgate Within'', inside the line wall, and ''Bisho ...

and

Cripplegate Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London. The gate gave its name to the Cripplegate ward of the City which straddles the line of the former wall and gate, a line which continues to divide the ward into ...

and leading to a marshy open space known as

, it was not one of the larger or more important of the city gates. In 1415 an

ordinance Ordinance may refer to: Law * Ordinance (Belgium), a law adopted by the Brussels Parliament or the Common Community Commission * Ordinance (India), a temporary law promulgated by the President of India on recommendation of the Union Cabinet * ...

enacted that the old postern be demolished. It was replaced with a newer and larger structure located farther to the west, which included a wooden

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

to be shut at night. This gate was enlarged again in 1472 and 1511, and then damaged in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...

in 1666. Although the City gates had ceased to have any modern function apart from decoration, it was replaced along with

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

Newgate Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to Mid ...

, and Temple Bar with a stone gate in 1672. City of London Ward Map, 1870

Moorgate and the Wall originally formed the northern boundary of Coleman Street Ward. It appears that the area outside, the once very marshy Lower and Little Moorfields (now mostly occupied by

Finsbury Circus Finsbury Circus is a park in the Coleman Street Ward of the City of London, England. The 2 acre park is the largest public open space within the City's boundaries. It is not to be confused with Finsbury Square, just north of the City, or Fi ...

and the surrounding buildings), previously part of the Manor of Finsbury were added in the 17th century, though it was not developed until 1817. Moorgate was demolished with most of the other London city wall gates in 1761/2, and the resulting stone was sold for £166 to the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

to support the

starlings Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus '' Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...

of the newly widened centre arch of the

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It re ...

. Little Moorgate was a postern opposite Little Winchester Street leading into

. It had been demolished by 1755, but gave its name to a street Boyle, P. ''Boyle's View of London, and its Environs''; 1799. London, accessed a

2008-04-12 that was later removed for the building of a railway.

Moorgate Street and locality

The area around the former gate, Moorgate Street and Moorgate station is referred to informally as the ''Moorgate'' area. This locale roughly approximates to the Coleman Street 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 contemporary street of Moorgate runs north from Princes Street and

Lothbury Lothbury is a short street in the City of London. It runs east–west with traffic flow in both directions, from Gresham Street's junction with Moorgate to the west, and Bartholomew Lane's junction with Throgmorton Street to the east. Hist ...

at the back of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...

, across the road named London Wall and the location of the old gate, and then continues north. After leaving the

in the direction of the

London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...

, the street is known as

Finsbury Pavement Finsbury Pavement is a short length of street connecting Moorgate with City Road in the London Borough of Islington. It forms a part of the London Inner Ring Road (as the A501 road), and before the introduction of the ring of steel around the Ci ...

(which at one time was known as Moor Fields Pavement) and then City Road. The street was constructed around 1846 as one of the new approaches to

. While the street was formally known as "Moorgate Street", the street part of the name eventually fell out of use. The Chartered Accountants' Hall, on Moorgate Place, is the home of the

Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is a professional membership organisation that promotes, develops and supports chartered accountants and students around the world. As of July 2022, it has over 198,000 members ...

. The

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in some ...

is connected to

via Bassishaw Highwalk. The Guildhall is the home of the

and the centre of City government since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Adjacent and internally connected to the Guildhall is the

Guildhall Art Gallery The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guil ...

, which houses the art collection of the City of London. It occupies a stone building in a semi-

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style which was completed in 1999 to replace an earlier building destroyed in 1941. The

were an extensive area of open land, partly in the City of London, partly in the Manor of Finsbury. The Lower Moorfields was home to the

Bethlem Royal Hospital Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and wikt:bedlam, Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably ''Bedlam (1946 fil ...

(also known as Bedlam, Europe's oldest

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

) from 1676 to 1815. Rocque e1 MoorgateCrop

The Lower Moorfields was developed in 1817, with the building of

. Finsbury Circus includes a number of classical buildings surrounding an oval-shaped

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

. The gardens in the centre of the circus occupy a plot enclosed by railings, and include the lawn of the City of London Bowls Club. Moorgate is also the birthplace of

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

, one of the principal

poets A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writt ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Romantic movement. Keats was born in 1795 in the Swan and Hoop Inn at 199 Moorgate, where his father was an ostler. The pub is now called "The John Keats at The Globe", having previously been known as "The Moorgate Coffee House", "The Moorgate" and "The John Keats at Moorgate", only a few yards from Moorgate station. A new commercial development on Moorgate, known as

Moor House Moor House is a large office building on London Wall in the City of London. It is located on the northern edge of the financial district and is one of the largest buildings in the area, standing tall and with 29,000 square metres of floor spac ...

, opened in 2005. The building is located at the corner of Moorgate and London Wall, and was designed by

Foster and Partners Foster + Partners is a British architectural, engineering, and integrated design practice founded in 1967 as Foster Associates by Norman Foster. It is the largest architectural firm in the UK with over 1,500 employees in 13 studios worldwide ...

. The building has of office space in 19 storeys, and is built in the location of a smaller office building built in the 1960s known as Moor House. A 36 m shaft under the building incorporates part of

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway l ...

's new station and ticket hall serving Liverpool Street. During the 1940s-60s, HM Customs and Excise investigation staff were based at Moorgate Hall, 153 Moorgate. There is a campus of the

London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public research university in London, England. The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (formerly the City ...

, formerly a polytechnic, and part of the London Guildhall University, on Moorgate. The campus houses its business school, a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

, and other administrative facilities. A number of large buildings are being planned or already built in the neighbouring streets. These include a 43-storey, 140 m residential skyscraper at Milton Court ( The Heron), that is taller than CityPoint, and a 90 m office tower at Ropemaker Place is also being developed by

British Land The British Land Company plc is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It is headquartered in ...

, with construction already underway.

Nearest places

Barbican Estate The Barbican Estate, or Barbican, is a residential complex of around 2,000 flats, maisonettes, and houses in central London, England, within the City of London. It is in an area once devastated by World War II bombings and densely populated b ...

Nearby rail and Tube

;''

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

'' *

Liverpool Street 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 ...

;''

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

'' *Moorgate station:

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, t ...

(city branch),

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is cons ...

, Hammersmith & City and

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

lines

Bus routes

Moorgate is served by the following bus routes: 21, 43 (24 hour), 76 (24 hour), 100, 141, 153, 214 (24 hour), 271 (24 hour) and Night Bus route N551 (Towards Gallions Reach on a temporary diversion)

Notes

References

;Books and articles * Lange, D. ''The Queen's London: A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks and Scenery of the Great Metropolis''. Cassell and Company, London, 1896. * Harris, C. M. ''What's in a name? The origins of the names of all stations in current use on the London Underground and Docklands Light rail with their opening dates.'' Midas Books and London Transport, fourth edition, 2001. . * Mills, A. D. ''Dictionary of London Place Names''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 2004. . * Rocque, J. ''Rocque's Map of London''. 1746 and 1763. * Harben, H. A. ''A Dictionary of London''. 1918. * Stow, J. ''Survey of London''. 1720 and 1755. 2 volumes. * Colvin, Sidney. ''John Keats - Biography''. 1887. * Motion, A. ''Keats''.

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Press, 1998. . * Holloway, S. ''Moorgate: Anatomy of a Railway Disaster''. Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1989. . * Bacon, J. M. ''The Dominion of the Air'', Chapter 3
Online extract
;Other web sites
Metronet history of the Circle Line
Retrieved 31 March 2005.
Metronet history of the Hammersmith and City Line
Retrieved 31 March 2005.

External links

BBC News account of the 1975 crash

Moorgate station
Official homepage of the station from Metronet
John Rocque's Map of London - 1746

Streetmap.co.uk
. The map is centred on the Moorgate campus of

BBC nature walks - Roman London and a geological walk of the world

Moors Gate
;Major buildings
Emporis information on the new Moor HouseEmporis information on the old Moor HouseCapitaLand homepage on 25 Moorgate
;Vincenzo Lunardi

Site with information about the balloon attempt and a model of the hydrogen balloon.

Site with information about the balloon attempt.

Site with picture of the stone marking the landing spot of Lunardi's balloon at Welham Green.
Streetmap.co.uk
showing Welham Green and Ware in Hertfordshire {{City of London gates Buildings and structures demolished in 1762 London Wall and its gates Streets in the City of London Districts of the City of London Central business districts in the United Kingdom