Category Archives: Reference

“Aldersgate * Aldgate * Bassishaw * Billingsgate * Bishopsgate * Bread Street * Bridge and Bridge Without * Broad Street * Candlewick * Castle Baynard * Cheap * Coleman Street * Cordwainer * Cornhill * Cripplegate * Dowgate * Farrington Within * Farrington Without * Langbourn * Lime Street * Portsoken * Queenhithe * Tower * Vintry * Walbrook

There have been twenty-five wards of the City of London for the last 1,000 years. They occasionally get bumped up by a sub-division, or down by an amalgamation, but happily we are set on twenty-five at the moment. In ancient days these wards allowed for a mosaic of parish-like administration, little self-governing communities with their own assemblies (wardmote), wells, local markets, cemeteries, systems of public order (three elected beadles), and charities presided over by an Alderman who formed a sort of Senate of London, the Court of Aldermen. From this court, the separate system of Livery Companies (trade guilds) elected a Lord Mayor, replaced every year to soften any authoritarian tendencies.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.