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On this first day of the year let us contemplate those places of going out and coming in, specifically the old gates of the City of London.
Discovering the sixteenth century figures of Old King Lud and his sons that once stood upon Ludgate yet are now forgotten in an alley of Fleet St, made me think more closely of the gates that once surrounded the City.
So I was delighted to come upon this eighteenth century print in the Spitalfields Market for a couple of pounds with the plangent title “The City Gates As They Appeared Before They Were Torn Down.”
Printed in 1775, this plate recorded venerable edifices that had been demolished in recent decades and was reproduced in Harrison’s History of London, a publication notable for featuring Death and an Hourglass upon the title page as if to emphasise the mutable, ever-changing nature of the capital and the brief nature of our residence in it.
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Moorgate (demolished 1761)
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Aldgate (demolished 1761)
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Bishopsgate (demolished 1760)
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Cripplegate (demolished 1760)
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Ludgate (demolished 1760)
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Newgate (demolished 1767)
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Aldersgate (demolished 1617)
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Bridgegate (demolished 1762)
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The City Gates As They Appeared Before They Were Torn Down, engraved for Harrison’s History of London 1775
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Sixteenth century figures of King Lud and his sons that formerly stood upon Ludgate, and stowed ever since in an alley at the side of St Dunstan in the West, Fleet St
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