Ludgate Hill

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"Ludgate Hill - A block in the Street", by Gustave Doré (1872)
"Ludgate Hill - A block in the Street", by Gustave Doré (1872)

Ludgate Hill is a hill in the City of London, near the old Ludgate, a gate to the City that was taken down, with its attached jail, in 1780. Ludgate Hill is the site of St Paul's Cathedral, traditionally said to have been the site of a Roman temple of the goddess Diana. It is one of the three ancient hills of London, the others being Tower Hill and Cornhill.

Ludgate Hill is also a related street which runs west from St. Paul's Churchyard to Ludgate Circus (built in 1864), and from there becomes Fleet Street. It was formerly a much narrower street called Ludgate Street.

The legendary King Ludd is supposed to have founded the settlement or City of London, Caer-Ludd in the 1st century BCE. It is derived from Ludd-deen or Valley of Ludd. St. Pauls is situated on top of Ludgate Hill in London, the original settlement of Ludd. Below it is the Roman gate of Ludd called Ludgate.

Many small alleys on Ludgate Hill were swept away in the early 1870s to build Ludgate Hill railway station between Water Lane and New Bridge Street, a station of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. It was demolished in 1990 and the replacement is called City Thameslink railway station.

There is a blue plaque near the bottom of the hill with these words "In a house near this site was published in 1702 The Daily Courant first London daily newspaper".

About halfway up Ludgate hill is St Martin, Ludgate church.

[edit] Literary associations

At the bottom of Ludgate Hill, on the north side, is Limeburner Lane. This sounds like a quaint survival from medieval time, but was constructed in the 1990s, where Seacoal Lane used to be. This was the location of "Belle Sauvage", an inn, first mentioned in 1452, where plays were performed. According to Stow the name was derived from "Isabella Savage", but Addison claimed it was "La belle Sauvage", a woman in the wilderness. The clown Tarlton used to perform here. It is mentioned in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" and "Pickwick Papers". In 1683 a "Rynoceros lately brought from the West Indies" was put on show here. The inn was demolished in 1873. In 1851 part of it was rented out to John Cassell (1817 - 1865) the great publisher. At this time it was still called La Belle Sauvage Yard.

Thomas Malory was imprisoned in the Ludgate prison in the 1460s, and translated a French life of Arthur while he was there. He later wrote Le Morte d'Arthur. The prison is mentioned in Daniel Defoe's "Roxana".

From 1731 the "London Coffee House" was next to St Martins, Ludgate at 24-26 Ludgate Hill. It was frequented by Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Franklin. When the juries at the Old Bailey failed to reach a verdict, they were housed here overnight. In 1806 a Roman hexagonal altar dedicated to Claudia Martina by her husband, now in the Guildhall, was found here together with a statue of Hercules. (Ref 1 below). The London Coffee House was closed in 1867, and is now occupied by a pub called "Ye Olde London".

Edmund Spencer's "Shepheard's Calendar" was printed by Hugh Singleton at the sign of the Gylden tunne in Creed Lane in 1579. John Evelyn lived in the Hawk and Pheasant on Ludgate hill between 1658-59.

The Blackfriars or Dominicans first came to London in 1221. In 1278 they moved from Holborn to an area south of Ludgate, where they built a friary. By 1320 they had demolished the Roman wall to build a new wall for the friary. This was demolished at the reformation, but the name persisted, when Shakespeare built the "Blackfriars Theatre" in 1596. In 1613 Shakespeare bought the Blackfriars gate-house.

Pageantmaster Court is almost opposite St Martin's. Unfortunately the name is not medieval, but dates from 1993. However, to the west is "King's Arms Court" which existed until recently. Grinling Gibbons lived there. According to Stow the gate acquired statues in 1260. In the reign of Edward VI the heads were "smitten off" and a few years later "Queen Mary did set new heads upon their old bodies again" (Ref 2 below)

[edit] External links