There are manyplaces around the City of London to see its old Roman Wall, notably alongside Noble Street, in Barber Surgeons' Meadow, through the Barbican, in St Alphage Garden and just outside the entrance to Tower Hill station. Here are four of the odder spots.
Four strange places to see London's Roman Wall
1) From platform 1 at Tower Hill station
If you're ever waiting for a westbound train at Tower Hill station, take a walk to the rear of the platform and take a look across the tracks, roughly where the penultimate carriage would stop. High on the far wall is a square recess lined by black tiles, and at the back of that is a dimly-lit surface of chunky irregular blocks. Unlike every single other thing on the Underground, the Romans built that.
London's original wall was 2 miles long, 6 metres high and almost 3 metres thick at its base, all the better to keep out uncivilised marauders. It was built around 200 AD, then left to decay and rebuilt in the medieval era, again for defensive purposes. This is one of the original bits, not that you can easily tell by squinting across the tracks. A small metal lamp points inwards but is no longer switched on because heritage illumination is not a TfL priority. There is however a rather nice silver plaque on the pillar opposite, should you step back far enough to notice it.
The plaque confirms that the stones here are a continuation of the wall seen (much more clearly) outside. What it doesn't mention is the unavoidable truth that the wall must once have continued across the tracks and platforms but is no longer here. That's because when the Circle line was constructed in 1882 the railway companies had permission to demolish 22 metres of London's wall and duly did, the Victorians never being afraid to destroy ancient heritage. Ian Visits has a photo of navvies standing atop the offending stonework just before they bashed it through. The square hole is no recompense, plus you can't see anything if a train's in the platform, but it is a brilliantly quirky thing to find on the Underground.
2) Round the back of the Leonardo Royal Hotel
The short walk from Tower Hill station to the rear entrance of Fenchurch Street passes two hotels. The second is the Leonardo Royal, formerly the Grange, whose car port looks like it leads to a cocktail terrace and maybe some parking. Nothing's signed from the street, indeed I'd never thought to duck through before, but at the far end past the umbrellas of Leo's bar is a significant chunk of Roman wall.
The upper section has arched windows built for archers and square holes which once supported a timber platform. It's impressive of course merely medieval, part of the rebuild that occurred along much of the wall as the city grew and spread beyond its former border. To see the Roman section stand closer to the rail and look down, this because ground level then was a few metres lower than now. The telltale signs are several distinctive bands of thin red bricks, these added to strengthen and bond the structure, and which look like layers of jam in a particularly lumpy sponge. The entire segment behind the hotel is over 20m long, thus longer than the better-known chunk outside the station.
Perhaps the best thing about this bit of wall is that you can walk through it. A couple of steps have been added on each side allowing passage through a low medieval arch, all marked with anachronistic trip hazard markings. If steps aren't your thing you can also pass round the end of the wall on the flat. Round the other side are a glum alley and a staff back-entrance, also an exit into a separate backstreet past a sign that says PRIVATE No Public Right Of Way Beyond This Point Entry At Your Own Risk Absolutely No Liability Is Accepted For Any Reason Whatsoever. Stuff that, there's an actual Roman Wall back here.
3) From a cafe terrace
I've written about The City Wall at Vine Street before, a free attraction opened in 2023 beneath a block of student flats. Last time I had to battle the Procedural Curmudgeon to gain admittance but I'm pleased to say they've since loosened up and you can now simply gesture at the door, walk in and give your first name to a flunkey with a tablet. He rattled through the key information with all the practised enthusiasm of a call centre employee dictating terms and conditions, then sent me off down the stairs.
Two walls are filled with finds from the excavations, including an AD 70s coin and the bones of a 1760s cat. Nobody's quite sure how the ancient Greek tombstone ended up here, given it predates Londinium, but it has pride of place in a central glass case. The 5-minute historical animation is pretty good too, assuming you can read quite fast. But the main draw is the multi-layered towering remnant of wall which here has the benefit of being properly illuminated and protected from the elements. The protruding lower section (which looks much too clean to be so very old) is all that remains of an original postern, and is also unique because all the other towers elsewhere round the City are merely medieval.
What's weird is that this large basement space is overlooked by a balcony scattered with small tables at which sit students and businesspeople consuming coffee and all-day brunch. The baristas operate from the cafe upstairs but any food comes from a small kitchen down below, which has the unnerving side effect that while you're wandering around what looks like a museum it smells like an office canteen. If you choose to be tempted by a cappuccino and smashed avocado on your way out you can enjoy extra time with the Roman wall, or indeed skip the walkthrough altogether and focus only on refreshment with an absolutely unique view. I recommend a proper visit though... the visitors book awaits your praise.
4) At the rear of a car park
This is amazing on many levels, the main level being subterranean. After WW2 so much of the City was in ruins that planners drove a new dual carriageway through the Aldersgate area and called it London Wall. They believed cars were the future and to that end hid a linear car park directly underneath the new road. It's very narrow, very long and pretty grim, indeed precisely the kind of filming location you'd expect a throwback crime thriller to use for a shoot-out or kidnapping. Cars enter down a short spiral ramp and pedestrians through a grubby side door, and the numbered concrete catacombs stretch on and on for almost 400 metres. Keep walking past the white vans, Range Rovers and the attendant's cabin, trying not to attract too much attention, and almost at the far end is... blimey.
You can't park in bays 52 and 53 because they're full of Roman remains. A substantial chunk of wall slots in diagonally beneath the joists and pillars, tall enough to incorporate two separate bands of red bricks. It looks quite smooth up front but fairly rubbly round the back, also much thicker at the base than at the top. Obviously it's very risky to have a scheduled ancient monument in a car park so protective concrete blocks have been added to make sure nobody reverses into the stonework by mistake. More recently a glass screen has been added at one end, branded 'City of London' so you know who to thank, but the other end remains accessible for now (not that you should be stepping in or even touching it).
It's the contrasts that I found most incongruous. A relic from Roman times penned inbetween a speed hump and a futile pedestrian crossing. A fortification from the 3rd century beside an electric van built last year. A defensive structure that helped see off the Peasants Revolt beside a poster warning what to do in the event of fire. A boundary wall once an intrinsic part of the capital now underground illuminated by strip lights. And all this at the very far end of an oppressive bunker preserved for the benefit of hardly any eyes in a parking facility only a few know to use. Sure you can see chunks of Roman wall all around the City, even from a tube platform, hotel terrace or cafe. But the oddest spot may well be here in the London Wall car park, should you ever have the balls to take a look.
