Rosana Costa

Review of Wall to Wall

During the Great Fire of London in September 1666,...

During the Great Fire of London in September 1666, almost the entire medieval city of London within the wall was destroyed. The seven gates to the city of London, with many repairs and reconstruction over the years, remained until they were all demolished between 1760 and 1767. The work of demolishing the walls continued into the 19th century; however, large sections of the wall have been incorporated into other structures. Some of the ruins visible in the bomb-damaged City during the Blitz in World War II were remnants of the London city wall.
All that remains of the wall are a few sections (albeit substantial), some of which can be seen in the gardens of the London Museum, at the Barbican Estate and around Tower Hill. A section near the London Museum was unveiled on Noble Street, following the devastation of an air strike on December 29, 1940, at the height of the Blitz. Another visible section is in St Alphage Gardens, and other sections form part of the walls or foundations of modern buildings and are only visible from within those buildings. One of the largest and most easily accessible fragments of the wall is just outside the tower's tube station Monte, with a replica statue of Emperor Trajan standing in front of it.