Ludgate

Ludgate

One of the principal gates in the Wall of London, on the western side.

Supposed by Stow to be one of the most ancient, but no proof is forthcoming of this.

Mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who stated that King Lud built it, B.C. 66, and was buried by the gate called to this time in the British tongue after his name "Parthlud" and in Saxon "Ludesgata" (p. 137). King Lud seems, however, to be quite a mythical personage, and no reliance can be placed upon the statements made by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He has been followed by later writers, as Matthew of Westminster, Roger of Wendover, but they are only quoting from Geoffrey of Monmouth and not offering any independent testimony.

It was probably a gate in the later Roman wall, after the extension of the western boundary of the City.

First mention: "Lutgata," 1100–35 (H. MSS. Com. 9th Rep. 25).

Other forms: "Ludgate," 1235 (Cal. P.R. H. III. 1232–47, p. 106). "Lutgate," 6 Ed. I. (Ch. I. p.m. 93). "Ludgate," 1285 (MS. D. and C. St. Paul's Lib. L. f. 93).

Repaired 1260. Made a free prison 1378. Prison abolished 1419 (Cal. L. Bk. H. p. 97 and note). Rebuilt 1586 (S. 39).

Demolished 1760 and materials sold (N. and Q. 5th S. IX. 19).

The statues of King Lud and his two sons which ornamented the gate were given by the City to Sir Francis Gosling to set up at the east end of St. Dunstan's Church. However, this was not done, and they were eventually put up in the garden front of St. Dunstan's, a house erected by the Marquis of Hertford in Regent's Park (N. and Q. 7th S. I. 214–15).

It has been suggested that the name "Ludgate" is a Celtic survival, "Lud" being a Celtic god of water worship. Another suggestion is that it is derived either from the personal name "Luda," "Lude," "Ludda," or from the O.E. "hlidgeat" or "hlydgeat," a postern, which separated the City from the fields beyond. Bosworth gives the form "ludgeat" = a postern gate (ib. 11th S. IV. 485), and this seems to be a possible derivation.

Ludgate, one of the four ancient gates of the City, taken down November 1760, at the solicitation of the inhabitants of Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without. It stood immediately west of the church of St Martin, Ludgate, between the church and the London Coffee-house. It is a popular notion that Ludgate takes its name from the mythical King Lud, by whom it was built sixty-six years before the birth of Christ. Dr. Edwin Freshfield supposes it to be derived from the word lode, a cut or drain into a larger stream.¹

Ludgate was either repaired or rebuilt in 1215, when the barons in arms against King John entered London and destroyed the houses of the Jews, using the stones in the restoration of the City walls and of Ludgate more especially. Stow records a curious confirmation of this circumstance, the discovery, when the gate was rebuilt in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, of a stone with a Hebrew inscription, signifying the sign or note of Rabbi Moses, the son of Rabbi Isaac. On the east side, in a niche, on this renewal, were placed the statues of Lud and his two sons in Roman costumes; and on the west side the statue of Queen Elizabeth. When the gates were taken down (1761–1762) Lud and his sons were given by the City to Sir Francis Gosling, who intended to set them up at the east end of St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street. This however he did not carry into effect, and the King and his two sons were deposited in the parish bone-house. The statue of Elizabeth met with a better fate, having a niche assigned it in the outer wall of old St. Dunstan's; and on the rebuilding of that church a similar situation in a niche in the outer wall of the new.²

[see Ludgate Prison]

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¹ Archæologia, voL xlv.
² Lud and his sons have been engraved by J.T. Smith. Of the Elizabethan Gate there is a view in Strype.