Ludgate Hill (London)
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The Ludgate Hill is a hill in the City of London . It got its name from the old city gate Ludgate at this point, which for centuries marked the western entrance to the city. This gate, which was also used as a guilty prison, was demolished in 1760. St Paul's Cathedral stands on the highest point of the hill . In Roman times there was a temple here , which was dedicated to the goddess Diana . Ludgate Hill is one of London's three ancient hills; the others are Tower Hill and Cornhill . The highest point is a few meters north of the cathedral at 17.6 m above sea level.
Ludgate Hill is also the name of the street that leads from the forecourt of St. Paul's Church to the Ludgate Circus junction , where it turns into Fleet Street . Until 1865 it was called Ludgate Street after the gate through which it led into the city.
description
Many narrow streets at the western foot of Ludgate Hill fell victim to the railway construction. It was here that the Ludgate Hill Railway Station , operated by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway , was built between Water Lane and New Bridge Street in the later 1860s . The station was closed in 1923 and the railway bridge between Holborn Viaduct station and Blackfriars station was demolished in the 1990s to replace the City Thameslink Railway Station underground. This also included the restoration of the street level, as well as some side streets at this point.
A blue plaque indicates a print shop that first printed the Daily Courant , London's first newspaper , in 1702 .
"In a house near this site was published in 1702 The Daily Courant first London daily newspaper."
The church of St Martin, Ludgate , whose first written mention dates back to 1174 , is located at the height of the old city gate that gives it its name.
On the hill, in the direct northern neighborhood of St. Paul's Cathedral, is Paternoster Square , where the London Stock Exchange has been located since 2004 .
etymology
Contrary to the assertion of the Norman-Welsh Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia regum Britanniae , Ludgate (“Porth Llydd”) was built by an old British king “Lud son of Heli” (see also the mythical figure Lludd ), the name of later authors optionally rather "floodgate '( Fluttor ) or after flowing near this point (now underground operations) River Fleet " Fleet gate "/" Fleodgaet "originating or" ludgeat "of or altenglisch " Hlid-geat "derived viewed what "Back gate" or sideline means.
Ludgate Hill
Limeburner Lane flows out at the foot of Ludgate Hill on the north side of the road . The road, which is named after the medieval profession of the lime burner , is a connection that was only constructed in the 1990s and built into the gaps left by the demolition of the viaduct. It is located roughly at the point where “Seacoal Lane” passed the traditional Bell Savage Inn before the railway was built . The first plays of the Elizabethan Theater were performed in this coach inn , first mentioned in 1452 . Grinling Gibbons lived here for a while before 1677, as did the German doctor Richard Rock , who became famous for his series of paintings A Harlot's Progress . In October 1684 a “ rhinoceros - recently brought from East India ” - was exhibited there for the first time in England . In the middle of the 19th century a trade fair hotel moved in and shortly afterwards a printing company ("Cassell & Company"). The inn was demolished in 1873 to make way for the railway viaduct.
The road Pageantmaster Court , opposite St Martin's Church, was created until the 1993rd
Ludd's Gate is mentioned in Bernard Cornwell's historical novel Sword Song , which is set in the reign of Alfred the Great . Ludgate appears in Walter de la Mares poem "Up and Down", from Collected Poems 1901-1918 , Volume II: Songs of Childhood, Peacock Pie, 1920. The prison is mentioned in Daniel Defoe's 1724 novel Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress .
From 1731 there was the "London Coffee House" (house number 24-26) next to St. Martin's Church. Among the returning guests were u. a. the scientists Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Franklin . If the lawyers in the neighboring Old Bailey court were unable to reach a verdict by the end of the day, those involved in the process were housed in this coffeehouse. During renovation work in 1806 a Roman altar was found there, dedicated to Claudia Martina by her husband (“[Dedicated] to the spirits of the deceased (and) to Claudia Martina, age 19; Anencletus, slave of the province (...) for his deeply revered wife; who here is"). A Hercules statue was also found. Both finds are now in the Museum of London. The London Coffee House was closed in 1867; however, there is still a restaurant there today.
The author and garden architect John Evelyn lived 1658-1659 in the Hawk and Pheasant inn on Ludgate Hill. The anatomist and physician William Harvey had a residence on the hill.
South of Ludgate Hill was the Dominican monastery of the Blackfriars , which still gives its name to this part of the city and the bridges there over the Thames .
Office buildings such as the Procession House (No. 55) or the New Ludgate One and Two complex built between 2010 and 2015 opposite the St. Martins Church ('Two' was designed by the Berlin architects Sauerbruch Hutton ) give the quarter a modern face.
Individual evidence
- ^ Ordnance Survey data
- ^ Walter Thornbury: Ludgate Hill . In: Old and New London: Volume 1 . Institute of Historical Research. 1878. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
- ↑ Gillian Bebbington: London Street Names , Batsford Books (today Pavilion Books), London 1972, ISBN 978-0-7134-0140-0 ( 207 online )
- ↑ Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Volume 2 , Susan E. Kelly, Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-19-726221-X , 9780197262214, pages 623-266
- ^ Geographical Etymology , Christina Blackie, p. 88
- ^ English Place-Name society, Volume 36, The University Press, 1962, p. 205
- ^ Middle English Dictionary, University of Michigan Press, 1998, pp. 972, ISBN 0-472-01124-3
- ^ William Kent: An encyclopaedia of London , Dent 1951, pages 402 ff.
- ^ Shelley, 1909, p. 76.
- ^ The first Rhino in Britain (Rhino Resource Center)
- ^ Description of the Roman altar in the Roman Inscriptions of Britain
- ^ Pictures of the altar on the website of the Museum of London
- ↑ Description of New Ludgate Two
Web links
- Ludgate hill in Dictionary of London (1918) British History Online
- Illustrations by Ludgate Hill
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 49.6 ″ N , 0 ° 6 ′ 2.9 ″ W.