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Database: The Map of Early Modern London
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TY - ELEC
A1 - Kwiatkowski, Charlene
ED - Jenstad, Janelle
T1 - Cripplegate
T2 - The Map of Early Modern London
PY - 2020
DA - 2020/06/26
CY - Victoria
PB - University of Victoria
LA - English
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CRIP1.htm
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/CRIP1.xml
ER -
RT Web Page
SR Electronic(1)
A1 Kwiatkowski, Charlene
A6 Jenstad, Janelle
T1 Cripplegate
T2 The Map of Early Modern London
WP 2020
FD 2020/06/26
RD 2020/06/26
PP Victoria
PB University of Victoria
LA English
OL English
LK https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/CRIP1.htm
Originally built as a Roman fortification for the provincial city of Londinium in the second century C.E., the London Wall remained a material and spatial boundary for the city throughout the early modern period. Described by high and great
(Stow 1: 8), the London Wall dominated the cityscape and spatial imaginations of Londoners for centuries. Increasingly, the eighteen-foot high wall created a pressurized constraint on the growing city; the various gates functioned as relief valves where development spilled out to occupy spaces
Grub Street could be found outside the walled city of London. It ran north-south, between Everades Well Street in the north and Fore Lane in the south. Grub Street was partially in Cripplegate ward, and partially outside the limits of the city of London.
Cheapside, one of the most important streets in early modern London, ran east-west between the Great Conduit at the foot of Old Jewry to the Little Conduit by St. Paul’s churchyard. The terminus of all the northbound streets from the river, the broad expanse of Cheapside separated the northern wards from the southern wards. It was lined with buildings three, four, and even five stories tall, whose shopfronts were open to the light and set out with attractive displays of luxury commodities (Weinreb and Hibbert 148). Cheapside was the centre of London’s wealth, with many mercers’ and goldsmiths’ shops located there. It was also the most sacred stretch of the processional route, being traced both by the linear east-west route of a royal entry and by the circular route of the annual mayoral procession.
Wood Street ran north-south, connecting at its southernmost end with Cheapside and continuing northward to Little Wood Street, which led directly into Cripplegate. It crossed over Huggin Lane, Lad Lane, Maiden Lane, Love Lane, Addle Lane, and Silver Street, and ran parallel to Milk Street in the east and Gutter Lane in the west. Wood Street lay within Cripplegate Ward. It is labelled as Wood Streat
on the Agas map and is drawn in the correct position.
For information about St. Giles, Cripplegate, a modern map marking the site where the it once stood, and a walking tour that will take you to the site, visit the
Barbican Tower was a watchtower or barbican to the northeast of the London Wall.
According to
As the only bridge in London crossing the Thames until
Aldgate was the easternmost gate into the walled
city. The name Aldgate
is thought to come from one of four sources:
Eastern gate
(Ekwall 36), ale
, public gate
or open to all
, or old gate
(Bebbington
20–21).
Cripplegate was one of the original gates in the city wall (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 221; Harben). It was the northern gate of a large fortress that occupied the northwestern corner of the Roman city.
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The Anno Mundi (year of the world
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Regnal dates are given as the number of years into the reign of a particular monarch.
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French abbot and historian.
Bishop of Elmham
Clergyman.
Bishop of Würzburg
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
King of East Anglia
King of England and Ireland
King of England
Water bailiff at Cripplegate.
Queen of England and Ireland
Dramatic character in
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Poet and monk of Bury.
Queen of England
King of Mercia
Naval officer and diarist.
Dramatic character in
King of England and Lord of Ireland
First Baronet. Sheriff of London
Sheriff of London
Scholar, administrator, and alleged traitor.
Sixteenth Earl of Warwick and Sixth Earl of Salisbury. Son of
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Cripplegate was one of the original gates in the
city wall (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 221; Harben). It was the northern gate of a large fortress that occupied the
northwestern corner of the Roman city, a site that has been well studied by
post–Word War II archaeologists (Howe and
Lakin 25-47). It was in use as a gate again by the eleventh century
(Howe and Lakin 100). In early
modern London, it continued to serve as one of the major northern egress points,
leading to Bunhill Field, Grub Street, and Whitecross Street. The
gate stood at the north end of Little Wood Street
(Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 221), on a direct
route from Cheapside via Wood Street. Cripplegate Ward spanned
the wall, with the gate marking a spatial (though
not political) boundary between the inner and outer halves of the ward. Clearly
visible on the Agas map, where it is labelled
The name of the gate has been variously spelled since the tenth century as
The next is the Posterne ofCripplegate , so called long before the Conquest. For I reade in the historie ofking of the East Angles, written by Edmond , and by Abbo Floriacensis somtime Secretarie to Burchard king of Offa Marcia , but since by, that in the yeare Iohn Lidgate Monke ofBery . the 1010 Danes spoiling the kingdome of the East Angles,, caused the body of king Alwyne Bishoppe ofHelmeham to bee brought from Edmond the MartyreBedrisworth , (now calledBury SaintEdmondes ,) through the kingdome of the East Saxons, and so toLondon in atCripplegate , a place sayeth mine Author so called of Criples begging there: at which gate, (it was said) the body entering, miracles were wrought, as some of the Lame to goe vpright, praysing God.
This gate’s proximity to the parish church of St. Giles
without Cripplegate
may confirm this association; the church was
built in
A circa
Harben offers an alternative to this story, drawing from the comments of a Mr.
Denton in the records of St. Giles. Denton questions the etymology of Cripplegate as deriving from cripples having begged
there, because this practice would have had to occur for a considerable length
of time in order for the name to attach itself to the gate, and the gate was
never known by any other name. In addition, cripples did not beg at Cripplegate any more than they did at the other
gates. Instead, Denton suggests that Cripplegate
and the Barbican were joined by a tunnel providing
a covered way
, between these two walls. The Anglo-Saxon word
for such a fortification was burrow
) (Harben). Both Bebbington and Smith take this position on the gate’s
name (Bebbington 103; Smith 55), while the more reliable
Like all of the city gates, Cripplegate was a guarded fortress affording passage in and out of the city. In his
a means of entrance or exit: placed at the back or side; secondary, lesser, private, hidden; esp. in postern door, postern gate(
So homewards, and to the Cross Keys at Cripplegate, where I find all the town almost going out of town, the coaches and wagons being all full of people going into the country.
While Pepys does not state where these travellers were headed, it is possible that they were journeying toward Islington, a suburb just northwest of Cripplegate which was a popular destination for Londoners’ outings (Dekker 191 n.52).
Apart from its role as a fortification, Cripplegate
took on other functions. Stow writes that it was sometimes used as a prison
(Stow), a practice that Weinreb,
Hibbert, Keay, and Keay date to the fourteenth century (212). Like London
Bridge, Cripplegate was used to display
the bodies of traitors. One such body was that of was hanged and after his head struck off and then quartered. And the
morrow after his head was set on London Bridge
and three quarters set over Cripplegate
(Machyn 1554-05-18).
Monarchical figures have passed through Cripplegate, or at least attempted
to. On Her grace rod
thrugh barbecan & crepulgat
(Machyn 1558-11-28). In
The gate was rebuilt a number of times, first in
This Gate was Repaired and Beautified, and the Foot Postern new made at the Charge of the City of London, theof the Reign of our Sovereign Lord K. 15th Year Charles the Second , and in the Maioralty ofSir John Robinson , Knt. and Baronet, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and Alderman of this Ward, Anno Dom.. 1663
The rooms over this gate also served as the residence for the water bailiff of
the city, whom Strype identifies as devastated
(Howe and Lakin 95). Hollar’s 1666 map of the fire damage shows the gate
looking very much as it did in Norden’s 1653
map. In
A plaque now marks the site of Cripplegate in Wood Street by Fore Street. Across the street, a City of London building named The Postern recalls the former gate. While the gate no longer exists, sections of the wall remain standing nearby in the Barbican complex (Ross and Clark 65).
A number of literary references draw upon the connection between the gate and cripples. In
ThisSignior Ioculento (as the diuell would haue it) comes prawncing in atCripplegate , and he may well doe it, for indeede all the parts hee playes are but cou’d speeches ſtolne from others, whoſe voices and actions hee counterfeſtes: but ſo lamely, that all the Cripples in tenne Spittle-houſes, ſhwe not more halting.
In
Thou lie with a woman—to build nothing but Cripplegates!suggests
City of Peace, seventeenth-century preacher and author
lameway to achieve peace:
It is the lameſt way to peace, yet a way: it is a halting gate, but a gate. It were far better comming into this Citie by any of the former gates, yet better at this then none. All come not in by Innocence, nor all by Patience, nor all by Beneficence: but if they haue failed in theſe, they muſt be admitted by recompence, or not at all.
These literary examples show that, whatever the origin of its name, Cripplegate was firmly associated with cripples in the cultural imagination.