Ludgate Hill - Literary Associations

Literary Associations

Ludgate is mentioned in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. According to the pseudohistorical work the name comes from the mythic Welsh king Lud son of Heli whom he claims also gave his name to London.

The Cronycullys of Englonde tell us of an early king of Britain: "he lete make a fayre gate and called hit Lud Gate after his name" in the year 66, but it is more likely that the Romans were the first to build it, and that it is simply named after him. One proposed derivation, entirely prosaic, is that the name is a variation on "Fleodgaet", or "Fleet-gate".

At the bottom of Ludgate Hill, on the north side, is Limeburner Lane. This may sound like a quaint survival from medieval times, but it was actually constructed in the 1990s, where Seacoal Lane used to be. This was the location of the Bell Savage Inn, first mentioned in 1452 where plays were performed. According to surveyor John Stow the name was derived from Isabella Savage, but Addison claimed it was "La belle Sauvage", a woman in the wilderness. The clown Richard Tarlton used to perform here. It is mentioned in Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays and Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers. In 1683, a "Rynoceros lately brought from the West Indies" was put on show here. The inn was demolished in 1873. In 1851, part of it was rented out to John Cassell (1817–1865), a notable publisher. At this time it was still called La Belle Sauvage Yard and the firm of Cassell used "la Belle Sauvage" in some of their imprints.

Thomas Malory was imprisoned in the Ludgate prison in the 1460s, and translated a French life of King Arthur while he was there. He later wrote Le Morte d'Arthur. The prison is mentioned in Daniel Defoe's Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress.

From 1731, the "London Coffee House" was next to St. Martin's, Ludgate, at 24-26 Ludgate Hill. It was frequented by Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Franklin. When the juries at the Old Bailey failed to reach a verdict, they were housed here overnight. In 1806, a Roman hexagonal altar dedicated to Claudia Martina by her husband, now in the Guildhall, was found here together with a statue of Hercules. The London Coffee House was closed in 1867, and is now occupied by a pub called "Ye Olde London".

Edmund Spenser's "Shepheard's Calender" was printed by Hugh Singleton at the sign of the "Gylden tunne" in Creed Lane in 1579. John Evelyn lived in the Hawk and Pheasant on Ludgate Hill in 1658-59.

The Blackfriars, or Dominicans, first came to London in 1221. In 1278, they moved from Holborn to an area south of Ludgate, where they built a friary. By 1320, they had demolished the Roman wall to build a new wall for the friary. This was demolished at the Reformation, but the name persisted, when Shakespeare built the "Blackfriars Theatre" in 1596. In 1613, Shakespeare bought the Blackfriars gate-house.

Pageantmaster Court is almost opposite St. Martin's. The name is not medieval but dates from 1993. However, to the west is King's Arms Court, which existed until recently. Grinling Gibbons lived there. According to Stow, the gate acquired statues in 1260. In the reign of Edward VI the heads were "smitten off" and a few years later "Queen Mary did set new heads upon their old bodies again".