What’s in a name? London place names decoded
We’re surrounded by street signs every day and casually type these sometimes odd-sounding addresses into Google Maps without a second thought about their origins. So, let’s delve deeper into the Roman history of London street names.
Barbican
The next time you’re out and about in Barbican, remember that this area was once a Roman stronghold. London’s first fort was built here between 110 and 120 AD and Barbican derives from the Latin word Barbecana – a fortified outpost, gate, or tower. This twelve-acre Roman fort was situated in the northwest corner of Londinium, the Roman city which once covered less than half the area of today’s City of London.
Remains of the base of a Roman fort, Barbican
Aldgate, Moorgate, Bishopsgate, Ludgate, Cripplegate
The Roman city of Londiinium [London] was protected by seven defensive gates. Three of those are recognisable today in the names Aldgate, Moorgate, and Bishopsgate. Elsewhere, Ludgate Hill, Cripplegate Cemetery, and Newgate Street are pointers to the existence of Roman-medieval gates no longer in situ. These gates served as administrative entry points for collecting taxes and tolls and for controlling who was permitted to exit. So not just keeping tribal incursions at bay.
The name Aldgate comes from Alderman’s gate and refers to the aldermen or senior officials who used this entrance. Bishopsgate has a mercantile connection. From medieval times it was used by visitors and merchants popping to and from Bishops Stortford for trade. Its gate area quickly became a buzzing nexus for commerce. Ludgate is named after King Lud, a pre-Roman monarch who, legend has it, founded London and was buried in the area. But there’s no historical evidence that he ever existed. Cripplegate comes from the Anglo-Saxon cruplegate, meaning protected tunnel or covered entrance. The Moorgate entrance opened out into the moors beyond the city walls. Newgate was, unsurprisingly, a pretty grim prison and its similarly forbidding portcullis entrance was a warning to convicts that this was no typical Roman-medieval gate. These unfortunate felons were executed here.
Stratford
This multi-ethnic and culturally diverse district in the London Borough of Newham, East London, is home to Westfields Shopping Centre and the London Stadium, West Ham United’s home ground and the venue for the 2012 Olympics. In the Roman period, a shallow river crossing or ford ran through the area and the name Stratford comes from a corruption of the Roman term Straet Forda. The term sounds like ‘Street Ford – a ford on a street’ Is it? Well, yes and no. The word street also comes from ‘Straet’, a post-medieval word for a Roman road. The word Stratford means ‘a ford next to a Roman road’ This reference to Stratford as Straet Forda is recorded in the Domesday Book [1086 AD].
Fleet Street
This is one of the few surviving Roman roads in London. It’s more commonly associated with the news and print industries that thrived there from the 16th century to late 1980s and is named after the River Fleet, which ran through the city in Roman times. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word flēot, meaning estuary or tidal inlet. In Roman times, the river formed a confluence with the Thames, and when Emperor Claudius invaded in Ad 43, he built the first London Bridge at this very intersection. The London we know today grew from a settlement around this Fleet-Thames confluence. You can’t find the River Fleet today because it is now a subterranean river.
