|
|
||||||
 |
||||||
London Walks for your MP3 Player Download my real time walks onto your MP3 player. No need for guide books or maps. No getting lost. Walk with me through less well-known parts of London little frequented by tourists.
Format : Travel |
Follow the Roman City Wall - Part 1 Updated: 2010-10-19 17:35:00 Description: From about 120 AD the Romans enclosed the capital city of Roman Britain, Londinium with a wall. No one know why. The wall was not necessarily built for protection at that time. Archaeologists have speculated that the objective might be to restrict access in and out of the city, enabling the Roman rulers and their successors to collect taxes. Another possibility is that the wall might have been constructed to impress, but floating more than a million Kentish ragstones up the Medway and along the Thames, each weighing as much as 500kg, might be stretching the prestige explanation a bit too far. Whatever the explanation, the wall was built. It was 2 miles long, stretching from the Tower of London by the River Thames in the South-East towards the North and then West to join up with an existing Roman fort just South of present-day Barbican. From there, the wall ran to the South-West, finishing at Blackfriars. The original Roman wall was characterised by ragstones interspersed with lines of terracotta roof tiles for strength, and diamond pattern bricks for decoration. The wall was extended upwards and strengthened in the mediaeval period when London was inhabited once again, and used as a defence throughout the middle ages. Gates were built at strategic points, and the names such as Bishopsgate, Aldgate, Aldersgate, Moorgate survive as road names to this day. Much of the wall has disappeared from sight. Either it was subsumed into houses, churches, and storerooms, or demolished when traffic volumes grew, or the stones were taken away and used to construct houses by local people. Much of this happened since the 1760's and a portion of the wall near the Museum of London was used as a Victorian warehouse which was not discovered until the blitz of the 1940's revealed the original line of the wall in the rubble of bomb sites and destruction. The Museum of London designed a Wall Walk many years ago, and erected ceramic information boards at strategic points. Sadly, many of them have now disappeared with building works. The IRA bomb of 1993 destroyed one. Parts of the wall were incorporated into modern office blocks, and other bits are very hard to find. You cannot therefore follow the walk as designed any more, but I have based this podcast on it. Having said that, all I have done is follow the line of the wall from Tower Hill to the Museum of London, but the commentary includes quotations from the original Museum of London text which can still be found on their web site even if much of it is hidden or has disappeared from the streets. This walk takes only 3 or 4 hours, but has taken me the best part of 3 days to design and research. I had to ferret out a big section of the wall that had been built into the basement of a conference centre. There are no signs, but the staff are happy to show you on request, even if you have to know it is there. The West Gate of the Roman fort is now in a locked room beside a car park. It is accessible on one day a month, and guided tours are offered by Museum staff. Again, you have to know it is there. So all in all, this walk was a labour of love, and took far longer to do than any of my other walks. It is in two parts. This is part one, from Tower Hill Underground (Circle and District zone 1) to the Museum of London (St Paul's Central Line zone 1). I hope to finish off the walk from the Museum down to Blackfriars when I get my breath back. It's a wonderful walk. There are many places where large, high sections of the wall are visible for free. The trouble is, you have to find them or know where they are. I tell you, and as far as I know there are no other up-to-date guides anywhere or my life would have been easier. It's a shame such an important historical site is now so poorly documented. if nothing else, I have made the whole length easier to find and more fun to follow, and the whole experience more interesting. LISTEN NOW | DOWNLOAD |
|
||||