Aldgate
Posted in Circle Line, Metropolitan on Apr 20th, 2010
Aldgate, situated near the eastern boundary of the City, takes its name from the gate which once spanned the road to Colchester (previously the capital city of England). It is thought that the underground station was built on the site of a plague pit – a mass grave for hundreds of victims of the Bubonic Plague of 1665.
Opened: 1884
Lines served: Circle, Metropolitan
Old or free?
Evidence suggests the gate was already in existence when the Roman wall was constructed around the City. The name is generally thought to mean ‘old gate’ although it has also been interpreted as deriving from ‘Aelgate’ meaning ‘free’ or ‘open to all’.
Between 1374 and 1385, Geoffrey Chaucer, then Comptroller (an accountant) of Customs for the port of London, rented the room above the gate.
The gate was rebuilt between 1607 and 1609, removed completely in 1761 and briefly re-erected at Bethnal Green.
Aldgate Pump
At the corner of Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street stands the Aldgate pump, a stone fountain with a history dating back to the reign of King John. In 1860s it was taken down and moved several feet to accommodate street widening. Complaints about the quality of the water led to an investigation which found that calcium from bones in some of the new London cemeteries was leaching into the stream which fed the fountain. It was subsequently connected to the main supply and then switched off altogether.
The Hoop and Grapes
At 47 Aldgate High Street is one of London’s oldest pubs and what is believed to be the oldest timber-framed building left in London.
In 1666 the Great Fire was able to cause such widespread devastation because most of the buildings in the capital were built from wood. The Hoop and Grapes, then a private residence, was no exception but was spared when the fire stopped just 50 yards away. Wooden buildings were understandably banned following the fire but 47 Aldgate High Street remained. The building was later converted into a pub, originally named The Hop and Grapes (to show it offered both beer and wine). It underwent restorative work and is now protected by English Heritage.
Shocking
Legend has it that towards the end of the twentieth century, a railway worker at Aldgate station was accidentally electrocuted resulting in 22,000 volts surging through his body. While his colleagues looked on in horror, they claim that the ghost of an old lady appeared next to the man and seemed to stroke his hair. Miraculously, the man survived without serious injury.
The Gherkin
Designed by Norman Foster and Partners, the obviously phallic Gherkin (or 30 St Mary Axe) is one of the most distinctive buildings in the London skyline. At 180m (591ft), it is the second tallest building in the City and the sixth tallest in London. It sits on the former site of the Baltic Exchange which was badly damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992.
Completed in 2003 and officially opened in May 2004, the building was designed to be environmentally friendly. It has 24,000sq m of external glass. In April 2005 a panel fell off and a covered walkway had to be temporarily erected in the plaza to protect visitors.
On construction the Roman grave of a teenage girl was unearthed. It was sheltered in the museum of London during construction and then re-inserted at the base of the building.
The London Bombings 2005
On 7th July 2005, one of the four bombs that exploded in London was on a Circle line train close to Aldgate station. Shehzad Tanweer detonated a device that injured many and took the lives of seven communters. Those killed were Anne Moffatt, 46, Lee Baisden, 34, Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, Richard Ellery, 22, Richard Gray, 41, Carrie Louise Taylor, 24, and Fiona Stevenson, 29.
The Inside Out Building
The Lloyds of London building at 1 Lime Street was designed by Richard Rogers and opened by the Queen in 1986. It was controversial at the time because it was such a dramatic departure from traditional architecture. Soon after they moved in, the chairman of Lloyds was asked at a press conference why an apparently stuffy seventeenth century insurance market place like Lloyds would go for a design of this type. His response was ‘If Lloyds can’t take a risk, who can?’
Lloyds started life in the seventeenth century at Edward Lloyd’s coffee house on Tower Street where customers would meet to arrange insurance. As the operation grew, Lloyd’s moved premises several times to Lombard Street, the Royal Exchange and Leadenhall Street before the construction of their current home in Lime Street.
The building’s design was based on the ‘inside out’ style used by Rogers for the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The stairwells and elevators are all on the outside, leaving the inner space completely clear. Internally, the main focus is the Underwriting Room where the famous Lutine Bell is kept (salvaged from a wrecked ship which was carrying a cargo insured by Lloyds). Lloyds also hold an extensive Nelson collection.
The buildings has been called many things from ‘the inside out’ building to an oil refinery. It has also been suggested that Lloyd’s have gone from coffee shop to ‘coffee machine’. I can’t see it myself.
