The First Half Mile

Half a mile out to the edge of the square mile and the east gate of Londinium and Elizabethan London

We start outside the Royal Exchange next to the Bank of England in the centre of the square mile that was walled by the Romans a couple of hundred years after they founded Londinium.

Maybe 30 feet under our feet runs the Wallbrook a river where the Romans brought their boats up from the Thames into the centre of town. It flows from the hills to the north of the Thames down between the two hills of the place that they called Londinium.

The Walbrook joins the Thames just upstream of the first London bridge that the Roman Army built in 43AD as they finally succeeding in invading Britain on their third attempt. Julius Caeser had tried before to prove a point but the Ancient British tribes under Casss had united against him and he gave up. So it was nearly a hundred years later and after the golden age of Augustus and the birth of Christianity that they tried again.

Behind us is Ludgate Hill topped by St Pauls and ahead of us is Corn Hill where the Romans built their town hall. As we walk up Cornhill we cross the road that led north through the north gate but we are heading for the east gate to follow the steps of the victorius roman army who marched down the north bank after coming across the river at this hill that made it narrower and the first point from sea where it was easy to bridge to carry troops, and supplies from Dover across the short channel crossing from Gaul and the long road up from Rome. This hill and the bridge at the crossroads and the accident of history that eventually became London.

… And on to the Mile End

From the “ald” East gate to the end of the first roman mile out of Londinium