This is a surviving section of the Roman city wall of Londinium, exposed near the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) on the western circuit of the defences. The wall was constructed c. AD 190–225, enclosing roughly 330 acres and standing originally some 6 metres high with a 2.4–3 metre thick base of Kentish ragstone bonded with courses of tile. It functioned as the principal defensive enceinte of the provincial capital until well into the medieval period.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The Old Bailey section forms part of the western defensive circuit linking the Cripplegate fort (incorporated into the wall) southwards towards the Thames via Ludgate and Newgate, making it integral to understanding the circuit's relationship to the Roman road network. Its survival demonstrates how the Roman line dictated the boundary of the City of London for over 1,500 years.
Excavations in the area around Old Bailey, Warwick Square and Amen Court (notably by W.F. Grimes after WWII bomb damage, and later RMLEC/MoLAS work) revealed the wall's characteristic ragstone-and-tile construction, the internal earth bank, and evidence of the external V-shaped ditch, together with later medieval bastions and refacings overlying the Roman fabric.
This is a surviving section of the Roman city wall of Londinium, exposed near the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) on the western circuit of the defences. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
London Wall: section of Roman wall at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey is classified as a Roman site — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Remains of Roman and medieval wall and gateway W of boundary of Stationers' Hall to Ludgate Hill (0.1 km), London Wall: site of Newgate and 121-124 Newgate Street, remains of Roman and medieval wall, gateway and bastion (0.1 km), London Wall: section of Roman wall and medieval bastion in Postman's Park and King Edward Street (0.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around London Wall: section of Roman wall at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey