London Walls in 1818

A view of the ancient London Walls as standing in 1818 by Postern Row, Tower Hill.

The walls about the Roman city of London were originally built out of Kentish ragstone in the late second century. The walls were almost 2 miles in length, enclosing an area of almost 330 acres, were almost 3 yards wide at their base and almost 20 feet high. They were extensively rebuilt in medieval times, so that the sections of the wall you can see today are largely roman brick and medieval mortar.

The Roman walls had four public gates - Aldgate, Bishopsgate, NewGate and Ludgate - and one which led into the fort in the north-western quadrant of the city - Cripplegate. Aldersgate was added in the fourth century, and Moorgate, Aldermanbury and the smaller gates near the Tower built during the medieval period. There is evidence that once there was a river wall along the Thames as well. The walls had bastions about their length, about 70 yards apart.

London was largely contained within the ancient walls until the sixteenth century, and by the seventeenth had started to expand well beyond them.

Below is a map showing where the section of the wall shown above stood in 1818.