Aldgate

Aldgate

One of the gates in the City wall on its eastern side. It stood in the midst of the High Street, at the south-eastern corner of what is now Duke Street. It is shown in Leake's map 1666 and in Agas, Guildhall ed. 1578. There is a plan of the gate in a survey of Holy Trinity Priory made 1592, now at Hatfield (Home Co. Mag. II). The old gate stood 25 feet east from the corner of Jewry Street. See Plate IV.

It is described by Stow as one of the four original gates in the wall and was new built in 1108–47, and again in 1215.

Earliest mention found in records: "Alegate" occurs in the grant by Matilda in 1108, of "Portam de Alegate," to the Prior of Holy Trinity (Cal. L. Bk. C.-p. 73) and "Allegate," 1108, Anc. Deeds, A. 1880.

Dodsley (1761) says it is mentioned in a charter of King Edgar dated 967, but he gives no authority for the statement, and the charter is not given in Kemble, Birch or Thorpe.

In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ed. Plummer and Earle, p. 181) mention is made in 1052 of the "Æstgate" of the city, and in the "Miraculi Beati Edmundi Regis" by Hermannus, written about 1070 (MS. Cott. Tib. B. II. I), the city was entered "a via que anglice dicitur 'ealsegate.'"

Both these forms may well have been used to designate "Aldgate" in early days before its name was finally determined.

The earliest form of the name in all records is "Alegate," "Algate," and this form continued in general use until the 16th or 17th centuries The form "Aldgate" does not occur until 1486–7 (Ct. H. W. 11. 589), and this may be an error in the text of the Calendar, and the 'd' may not occur in the MS. itself.

The dwelling-house above the gate was let to Geoffrey Chaucer in 1374 (Cal. L. Bk. G. 327–8). It was rebuilt in 1607–9, and when the gate was finally taken down and removed in 1761, some Roman coins were found under it. It was re-erected at Bethnal Green, but was pulled down not long after, and no trace of it now remains.

The name of the gate still survives in the Ward and street of Aldgate. Stow derives the name from the "antiquity or age thereof," but in this he is certainly wrong. The spelling in all early documents is, as stated above, usually "Algate," and the "d" is invariably absent. It is intrusive and may be entirely disregarded in determining the derivation of the name. Mr. Loftie, who is "shocked at Stow's ignorant guessing," says that it means "free to all." But he does not show how or why it was more free than other gates, nor does he hazard a suggestion as to the original form of the word.

The true etymology is undetermined, but several suggestions have been offered. Colonel Prideaux suggests in N. and Q. 9, S.I. 1, that it may mean the gate of the foreigners from "ael" = foreign. This word "ael" in Anglo-Saxon, besides being used in place of the prefixes "eal" = all, and "el" = foreign, is also used for "ele" = oil, and has further the meaning of "awl," so that there is here plenty of material for guesswork.

It may be connected with "ale," in the sense of a feast, as in the word "bridal," or in the sense of an ale-house. If the reference given above containing the form "ealse" can be taken to apply to Alegate, it suggests that the gate may have been named after some one called "Ealh," an owner or builder, as this personal name was in general use in Anglo-Saxon times. The east gate of Gloucester was known as "Ailesgate" from "Æthel," and it is conceivable that the "ale" or "Alle" in Alegate is derived from the same name "Æthel," the "th" having dropped out early, but in the circumstances the name "Ealh" seems the more probable derivation.

Portions of the foundations of an old gate (probably mediæval) were found in 1907 on the south side of Aldgate High Street, 25 ft. east from the corner of Jewry Street at a depth of 16 ft. 6 in., and on the north side of the street in 1908 under the Post Office (Arch. LXIII. p. 266).

See Gates of the City.

Aldgate, a gate in the City wall towards the east, and, according to most authorities, called Aldgate from its antiquity or age, but in the earliest records the spelling is Alegate (1325–1344), or Algate (1381), which is suggestive of another derivation. The gateway, a stately structure, stood in the midst of the High Street, south of Aldgate Church. Duke's Place and Poor Jury Lane now called Duke Street and Jewry Street being immediately inside the gate and wall. In 1215 the barons who were at war with King John entered the city with ease at Aldgate, which was then in a ruinous condition. Shortly afterwards they rebuilt the gate.

In 1374 a lease was granted for the term of his life to Geoffrey Chaucer of "the whole of the dwelling-house above the gate of Algate with the rooms built over, and a certain cellar beneath the same gate, on the south side of that gate, and the appurtenances thereof," he undertaking that he "will competently and sufficiently maintain and repair" them under penalty of being "ousted" on the neglect to do so. On the other hand he is not to let any portion of the said gate or dwelling, and "in time of defence of the city" the mayor and authorities are, when, and as often as it shall be necessary, to be free "to enter the said house and rooms, and to order and dispose of the same, in such times, and in such manner as shall then seem to us to be most expedient."¹ Great evils resulted from the occupation of the city gates as residences, and in 1386 the city enacted "that no grant shall from henceforth in any way be made unto any person, of the gates, or of the dwelling-houses above the gates, etc.

On her accession in 1553, Queen Mary entered London by this gate; the princess Elizabeth, escorted by 2000 horse, was in waiting to receive her, and the greeting of the sisters was in appearance warm and affectionate.

This is one and the first of the four principal gates, and also one of the seven double gates mentioned by Fitzstephen. It hath had two pair of gates, though now but one; the hooks remaineth yet. Also there hath been two portcloses: the one of them remaineth, the other wanteth; but the place of letting down is manifest.—Stow, p. 12.

The gate described by Stow was taken down in 1606, and a new one erected in its stead, the ornaments of which are dwelt upon at great length by Stow's continuators. Two Roman soldiers stood on the outer battlements, with stone balls in their hands, ready to defend the gate: beneath, in a square, was a statue of James I., and at his feet the royal supporters. On the city side stood a large figure of Fortune, and somewhat lower, so as to grace each side of the gate, gilded figures of Peace and Charity, copied from the reverses of two Roman coins, discovered whilst digging the new foundations for the gate. The whole structure was two years in erecting. The inscription, from the amusing assumption of the Corporation, is worth preserving:

Senatus Populus Que Londinensis
Fecit 1609
Humfrey Weld, Maior.

Many things that seem foul in the doing, do please, done. ... You see gilders will not work but inclosed. ... How long did the canvas hang before Aldgate? Were the people suffered to see the City's Love and Charity, while they were rude stone, before they were painted and burnished?—Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman, Act. i. Sc. I.

The "City's Love and Charity" were standing in 1760;² the other statues had been long removed. The apartments over the gate were in the early part of the 18th century appropriated to one of the Lord Mayor's carvers, but afterwards used as a charity school. The gate was taken down in 1761; the materials sold for £177: 10s.¹

Here in the 14th century was a garden, marking probably the site of an earlier hermitage.

19 Edward III. (1325).—The garden at the south side of Aldgate, called The Hermitage, which Roger atte Wattre, the serjeant, held, was granted to Peter de Stanndone, blader [corn dealer], for the whole term of his life, at a yearly payment of ten shillings.

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¹ Riley, Memorials, p. 377.
² London and its Environs, 1761.