These two streets, forming one continuous thoroughfare, are so intimately associated in their annals, that it is almost impossible to write the history of one of them without constant reference to the other.

Aldersgate Street derives its name from the old City gate which was the north-western outlet of the City, and St. Martin's-le-Grand (formerly Martin's Lane) from the collegiate establishment which occupied the site of the older or eastern portion of the Post Office. In the last century, that portion from the Barbican to the Bars was called "Pick-axe Street." Aldersgate is supposed to have been one of the four gates of Roman London, and was in the line of an ancient British trackway, improved by the Romans into a road called Watling Street, which came from Dover, crossed the Thames by a ferry, passed along where the modern Watling Street is, emerged from the City by Aldersgate, and went onwards towards Verulamium (St. Albans). As to the origin of the name there are various discrepant presumptions. Some assume that it was so called because it was one of the elder, or one of the four original gates; others that it obtained its name from a Saxon—one Aldrich, the builder or re-edifier of it; but the most probable assumption is that it was so denominated from the alder, or elder trees which grew in great profusion in that locality. The wall, after leaving Cripplegate, proceeded westward for a short distance, then turned at a sharp angle to the south, along the present Noble Street, until it came to near where the Castle and Falcon stands, where it again took a south-westerly direction, past St. Botolph's Church and the Greyfriars' Monastery. As represented by Aggas's map, there were four semicircular bastions in the Noble Street portion, looking westward, and two in the line from Noble Street to Greyfriars, besides the gate at the end of St. Martin's Lane, which is there represented as a heterogeneous mass of buildings, fortified, and with two posterns, the centre arch being hidden by a low building standing in front of it. A little to the north-west of Cripplegate stood a watch-tower called the Barbican, on the north side of the street bearing that name. It was erected by the Romans, and was garrisoned by a cohort of soldiers, who had a threefold duty to perform: first to keep an outlook for approaching enemies, secondly to watch for the outbreak of fire in the City, and thirdly to keep a beacon blazing on the top to serve as a guide for travellers by night over the northern fens and moors. Bridgewater House, which was destroyed by fire in 1698, is supposed to have been built on the site, and now Bridgewater Square. Some remains of the old Barbican were to be seen here in the last century.

Very little is known of the earlier history of Aldersgate. Stow says "This gate was antiently at divers times increased with buildings, namely on the south side, a great frame of timber was set up, containing many large rooms and lodgings; and on the east side was the addition of one large building of timber with one large floor, paved with stone or tile, and a well therein curbed with stone to a great depth, and rising into the said room two stories high from the ground."

In 1610, Thomas Hayes erected a conduit a little way to the north of the gate, which was supplied with water brought in pipes from the Thames.

It was usual to grant the rooms over the gates as residences for officials of the Corporation, those over Aldersgate being generally appropriated to the city crier. There is among the Corporation Records a deed of grant, in Latin, dated 49, Edw. 3, 1378, which, translated, runs thus: "Be it remembered that we, William Walworth, Mayor of London and the Assembly of Aldermen, with the assent of the Commonality of the City aforesaid, by reason of the good service by Ralph Strode, Common Countor (pleader or common serjeant) unto us done and hereafter to be done, have given and granted unto the said Ralph all the dwelling houses, together with the garden and all other appurtenances, situate over the gate of Aldrichesgate, to have and to hold the same as long as he, the said Ralph, shall remain in the said office of Countor, it being understood that the Chamberlain for the time being during the next year shall cause at his own expense all and singular the defaults in the said house to be repaired, etc." In the reign of Elizabeth it was occupied by the famous printer, John Day. Frequently, as was usual with city gates, Aldersgate presented to the view of passers-by a ghastly garnishing of the dismembered limbs of traitors. Thus Pepys writes, October 20th, 1660: "This afternoon, going through London and calling at Crowe's (Alderman Crowe) the upholsterer in Saint Bartholomew's, I saw the limbs of some of our new traytors set upon Aldersgate, which was a sad sight to see; and a bloody week this and the last have been, there being ten hanged, drawn, and quartered."

The gate gives the name to a City ward which was instituted in 1285, which is divided into two sections, each with four precincts. The first Alderman was William de Maiener; of the subsequent Aldermen, two have been baronets, Sir Samuel Garrard, Lord Mayor in 1709, whose ancestor, Sir William Garrard, was Lord Mayor in 1555, and whose great grandson, Sir John, was created baronet in 1621. Sir Samuel was the fourth in the baronetcy, and left issue two sons, both of whom succeeded, and both of whom died unmarried, the younger in 1767, when the baronetcy became extinct. The other was Sir John William Anderson, Lord Mayor in 1798, created baronet the same year, who died without issue in 1813, when the title expired. Three Aldermen also have been knighted, viz., Sir Peter Floyer, Sir Thos. Halifax, and Sir Peter Laurie. The Liberty of St. Martin's College was comprehended in the ward, but was exempt from its jurisdiction. Before the fire of 1666 there were six churches in the ward, those of St. John Zachary, St. Mary Staining, St. Olave, St. Leonard, St. Anne, and St. Botolph; of these the first five were consumed in the fire, and St. Anne's only rebuilt. St. Botolph escaped with a scorching. The most important religious establishment in the ward was the Collegiate Church of St. Martin's-le-Grand. Tradition says that it was founded in the time of the early British Christianity, by Wythered, King of Kent, in honour of Cadwallon, King of Britain. It was repaired and endowed circa 1056 by two brothers (Saxons), Ingelricus and Edward or Gerard, which was confirmed by William I., after the Conquest, by charter, wherein it is declared to be a Royal free chapel, with a collegiate establishment consisting of a dean and a fraternity of secular canons, with many privileges and immunities, including exemption from outward, civil, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the right of sanctuary within the limits of the liberty.

Ingelricus was the first dean, and after him several distinguished men held the office, of whom William de Wykeham, the famous architect, Bishop of Winchester and builder of Windsor Castle, rebuilt considerable portions of the College; and James Stanley, brother of the Earl of Derby, who was instituted in 1493, and is supposed to have been the last.

The college with all its appurtenances was given by Henry VII., in 1502, to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, for the performance of certain religious ceremonials; and on the suppression of the abbey, 34 Henry VIII., was transferred to the newly-created dean and chapter. It was suppressed finally in 1548, 2 Edward VI., and the same year, as Stow informs us, "the church was pulled down, and in the east part thereof a large wine tavern was builded, and withall down to the west and throughout the whole of the precinct of the college, many other houses were builded and highly priced, letten to strangers borne and others such as then claymed benefitte of privileges grannted to the canons serving God day and night (for so be the words of the charter of William the Conqueror) which may hardly be wrested to artificers, buyers and sellers, otherwise than as mentioned in the 21st of St. Matthew's Gospel."

The curfew bell was rung nightly, at eight o'clock, from the churchtower. Edward I. issued a proclamation that "in consequence of the many mischiefs, murders, robberies, and beating down persons by certain Hectors walking arm in arm, none should be so hardy as to be found wandering in the streets after the curfew had sounded at St. Martin's-le-Grand. The other churches where the curfew bell was rung in the City were St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Giles, Cripplegate, and Allhallows Barking. At the sound of the bell the great gates of Aldersgate were closed, but the wickets left open, which were also shut and fastened as soon as it ceased ringing, and were not opened again until the morning excepting by a special order from the Lord Mayor.

In digging the foundations for the Post Office in 1818, a range of Saxon or early Norman vaults were discovered, which had belonged to the college, the remains of a crypt of the time of Henry III., and a stone coffin.

St. Botolph's church, situated on the western side of Aldersgate Street, near Little Britain, is dedicated to a Cornish monk, who is said to have lived in the time of King Lucius, and was buried at Boston (Botolph's town), in Lincolnshire. It is an ancient rectory, formerly in the gift of the dean and canons of St. Martin, and was given along with the college to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, and at the dissolution to the Bishop of Westminster, who was suppressed by Queen Mary, and the convent restored, to whom it reverted. Queen Elizabeth restored it to the new dean and chapter, who still hold it, subject to the approval of the Bishop and Archdeacon of London. It escaped the fire of 1666, became ruinous, and was patched and repaired at divers times until 1790, when it was rebuilt, a portion of the old church being retained in the eastern wall. It cannot be considered a handsome church exteriorly, but the interior is effective, although of mixed styles. It has a painted window of Christ's agony in the garden, executed in the dark age of glass painting. In another window, by Jas. Pierson, the figure of St. Peter is very fine. Having been spared by the Fire, the church contains a great many monuments of the old citizens of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There is one to Daniel Wray, F.R.S., Deputy Teller of the Exchequer, who died in 1783, Æt. 83. He was a learned man, and collected a large library of old authors, which his widow presented to the Charter House. Another, a tablet and bust, by Roubiliac, is erected to the memory of Elizabeth Smith, who died in 1750, Æt. 15. There is an inscription commencing—

At the north-east corner of Little Britain stood an alien Cluniac Priory, or Hospital, founded in 1377, which was suppressed with other alien houses by Henry V., and the endowments given to the parishioners of St. Botolph's, who founded a brotherhood of the Holy Trinity, in connection with the church, to celebrate masses in the church. It was suppressed temp. Edward VI., and the hall of the priory converted into a vestry and school. There were also two brotherhoods of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, and a sisterhood of St. Katherine in the church.

St. Anne's Church is also called the Church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, from a tradition that it was built by two sisters so named, and in old records is styled St. Anne in the Willows, from its standing in a grove of those trees. The date of its foundation is not known, but a John de Chambrey was collated to the living in 1322. The rectory was under the patronage of the Dean and Canons of St. Martin's, and went with the college to Westminster. It was destroyed by fire in 1548, restored in 1624, again burnt in 1666, rebuilt by Wren in 1680, when the parish of St. John Zachary was united to it, and again "repaired and beautified" in 1701-3. Within its walls was buried William Gregory, Mayor of London 1451, in a chantry which he had founded. There was a monument to Peter Helwood, who was stabbed in Westminster Hall, in 1640, by John James, a Dominican friar, for his zealous prosecution of the Papists, as a justice of the peace. The inscription says:—

The Rev. James Penn, lecturer at the church, was, along with the Rev. S. Aldrich, rector of St. John's, Clerkenwell, appointed to investigate the mystery of the Cock Lane Ghost.

There have been several notable Nonconformist chapels in and about Aldersgate Street. Early in the reign of Charles II., the Society of Friends established a meeting in Bull and Mouth Street, and George Fox frequently preached there. As was common at that time, the congregation was subjected to barbarous persecution. In 1662 a mob assembled, dragged them out into the street, beating and mauling them severely, and killing one outright.

In 1760 the meeting was given up, and the room taken by a congregation of Sandemanians from Glovers' Hall, who held it many years until they removed to Paul's Abbey Barbican. In 1767 appeared "A Plain and Full Account of the Christian Practices Observed by the Church in St. Martin's-le-Grand, etc.," which was attributed to the Rev. John Bernard, minister of the chapel, a learned man, and author of some other works, who was eventually expelled from his pulpit for "not being sufficiently humble, and for thinking too highly of his preaching abilities." He died in 1805.

Trinity Hall, at the corner of Little Britain, was occupied by a congregation of Nonjurors, and afterwards by a society of Moravians. It was here that a memorable event took place, which had an important influence in the great revival of religion in the last century, and resulted, along with other predisposing causes, in the outgrowth of the now large and influential sect of Wesleyan Methodists. John Wesley, in his journal, May 24th, 1738, writes: "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the changes which God makes in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins—even mine—and saved me from the law of sin and death."

Hare Court Independent Chapel was built on ground leased for 999 years, from Sir Henry Ashurst, in the year of the Revolution, 1688. Originally it stood with an open space in front, facing Aldersgate Street, with a single entrance therefrom. It was built by a society gathered together in the reign of Charles II. by the Rev. Geo. Cockayn, who had been ejected from St. Pancras, Soper Lane, in 1662, consisting of many of the foremost citizens and several officers of the army. It was rebuilt in 1772, with three galleries, and a new entrance from Paul's Alley. In 1857, the chapel was disposed of, and out of the proceeds a new one built in Canonbury, to which was given the time honoured name of Hare Court, and which maintains the popularity of its predecessor.

In 1804 a congregation of Calvinistic Methodists assembled in a large room of Shaftesbury House, under the pastorate of the Rev. T. Madden, who removed hither with his flock from Bartholomew Close.

From the time of the Plantagenets to that of the Stuarts, Aldersgate Street was the Belgravia of London, the place of residence of prelates and nobles. Compared with other streets of the City, it was spacious and open, lined with magnificent buildings, and adorned with clusters and lines of ancient trees. Howell, in his Londinopolis, 1657, speaks of it as resembling a street in an Italian city; and Malcolm, in his Londinium Redivivum, 1805, says; "Aldersgate Street is very unequal in its buildings, but the majority are of superior excellence, and the various shops and warehouses of the first respectability. In width it is superior to most of the streets within the walls of the City."

The only one of the famous old mansions recently remaining was Shaftesbury or Thanet House. It was built by Inigo Jones for the Tuftons, Earls of Thanet, and was purchased by Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, the Achitophel of Dryden. Pennant says: "It was hired or purchased by the incendiary statesman, Lord Shaftesbury, for the purpose of living in the City to inflame the minds of the citizens, among whom he used to boast he could raise 10,000 brisk boys by the holding up of his finger. He attempted to get into the magistracy, but being disappointed in his views and terrified at the apprehension of the detection of a conspiracy he had entered into against his prince, he fled, in 1683, into Holland, where he soon died of the gout, heightened by rage and frustrated ambition."

The house was afterwards let for manufacturing purposes; in 1750 it became a Lying-in-Hospital, which was removed to the City Road, when it was opened as a Dispensary, with a Dissenting Chapel, called Shaftesbury Chapel, on the first floor, until the migration of the congregation to a new chapel opposite Westmoreland Buildings, called Aldersgate Chapel.

Petre, Dorchester, or London House stood on the west side of the street nearly opposite Shaftesbury House. It is supposed to have been built by Sir William Petre, who became rich by monastic plunder at the dissolution of monasteries, and died in 1572. It was occupied by his descendants until 1639, when it came into possession of Henry Pierrepoint, Marquis of Dorchester. During the Commonwealth it was made use of as a state prison, and after the Great Fire of 1666 had destroyed the palace of the Bishop of London, in St. Paul's Churchyard, became the episcopal residence of the see, many alterations being made, and the chapel built by various bishops, and was held by them until 1725. In 1748 it was occupied by Jacob Ilive, "the crazy printer and fanatical writer," and twenty years after by Seddon, the eminent cabinetmaker, ancestors of the Seddons of Gray's Inn Road, who had the misfortune to have it burnt, with the whole of his uninsured stock, on two occasions. Afterwards, also, Miss Seddon was burnt to death in the house, by her clothes catching fire.

The two mighty and illustrious northern families of Percy and Nevil had both of them a town mansion in Aldersgate Street on the western side—Northumberland House, on the site of Bull and Mouth Street; and Westmoreland House, on the site of Westmoreland Court, extending to Bartholomew Close. On the death of Henry, first Earl of Northumberland, at the Battle of Bramham Moor, 1408, and his subsequent attainder, King Henry IV. gave Northumberland House to Queen Joan for a wardrobe. Afterwards it became a printing office, then a tavern, and finally was divided into shops and tenements. Lauderdale House stood on the east side, a little north of Shaftesbury House. It was the residence of the Earl of Lauderdale, a member of the "Cabal" ministry of Charles II. Upon the site was built Bote and Walsh's distillery. Close by Shaftesbury House stood Bacon House, the residence of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper to Queen Elizabeth, and father of Lord Chancellor Bacon, one of the greatest of our philosophers. Ralph Montagu, third Baron and first Duke of Montagu, "as arrant a knave as any in his time," as Swift observed when he was raised to a dukedom, lived in Aldersgate Street until he built Montagu House, Bloomsbury (the British Museum), when he removed thither. Charles Mordaunt, third Earl of Peterborough, one of the foremost men of the court of Queen Anne, was also a resident. On the west side of the street there is a picturesque old house (now a newsagent's shop) with an inscription stating that "This was Shakespeare's House," which may possibly be true, but there does not appear to be any documentary evidence in proof thereof. Mary, Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir P. Sydney, the subject of Ben Jonson's famous epitaph, which was not inscribed on her tomb, died at her house in the street in 1621.

Many other distinguished personages have been born, lived, or died in Aldersgate Street, amongst whom may be noticed Milton, who in 1641 was living in a house at the bottom of Lamb (now Maidenhead) Court; Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester, the learned editor of the first English Polyglot Bible; Thos. Flatman, the poet, who was born in the street in 1657; the brothers Rawlinson, who resided in London House—Thomas, the "Tom Folio" of the Tatler, No. 158, and Richard, LL.D., F.R.S., and F.S.A., both antiquaries and great collectors of books. The Right Hon. Thos. Harley, a memorable member of the Corporation, and M.P. for the City, also resided here.

The Company of Cooks had their hall on the western side of Aldersgate Street, adjoining Little Britain. The company was incorporated by Letters Patent in 1480, by Edward IV., under the style and title of "The Masters and Governors and Commonalty of the Mystery of Cooks in London," and their charter was confirmed by Elizabeth and James I. with "a master, four wardens, and 25 assistants." The hall escaped the fire of 1666, but was destroyed by fire in 1771, and was not rebuilt.

There have been and still are many taverns and hostelries of considerable note in Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-le-Grand. The most interesting is the "Mourning Bush," a very ancient tavern with a carved ivy bush for its sign—a timber-gabled house—with portions of the old wall of London for its foundations. It stood on the east side of the street, and had a back entrance in St. Anne's Lane. The landlord, during the time of the Civil War, was a devoted royalist, and on the execution of King Charles had the courage to paint his ivy bush black, and call it the "Mourning Bush." In 1749, the sign was changed to "The Fountain," and is referred to by Tom Brown as one of the "four or five topping taverns of the City," whose owners might look for an alderman's gown. In 1830, it was repaired and refitted, and instead of restoring the old historically interesting name, it has since been christened "The Lord Raglan." "The Bull and Mouth" (a corruption of Boulogne Mouth, or Harbour) a very ancient hostelry, originally standing in Bull and Mouth and Angel streets, with a galleried and gabled court-yard, now taken down. It was rebuilt in 1830, and to meet the more fastidious taste of the time its somewhat vulgar name was changed to the more euphonious "Queen's Hotel." On a stone tablet was the following inscription:—

The new branch of the Post Office is being built on the site. Two doors from Barbican stood the "Bell," an inn worthy of being remembered as having been the resort of John Taylor, the Water Poet. The Albion is celebrated for its public dinners, and for the trade sales of London publishers. The Castle and Falcon is also a famous and very old inn, standing close by, and probably on a portion of the site of the gate.

Aldersgate Street has been the scene of some incendiary fires for the sake of plunder. Pepys, in his Diary, July, 1687, refers to a case in which two boys, one "a son of Lady Montagu's, I know not what Lady Montagu—got into the company of some rogues, who persuaded them to rob their fathers' houses of plate and other valuables, of which they appropriated the greater portion, and afterwards to set fire to a house in the street, that they might abscond with the goods that were thrown into the streets." Again in May, 1790, some scoundrels fired a house at the corner of Long Lane, which eventuated in the destruction of all the houses to Catherine (? Carthusian Street), involving the loss of property amounting to £40,000, that they might plunder them in the confusion. One John Flindall was apprehended, tried, and sentenced to transportation for robbery during the fire, when he offered to turn king's evidence, was accepted, and he revealed the diabolical plot, implicating especially two accomplices, Lowe and Jobbins, the ringleaders, who were hanged in front of the ruins. The Corporation took advantage of the clearance to widen Aldersgate in this part of the street, which had previously been very narrow, at a cost of £4,035.

The 7th of May, in the year 1603, was a day long remembered by the worthy citizens of Aldersgate Street, as that on which King James VI. of Scotland, entered the City through their gate to assume the title of James the First of England. The street was adorned with triumphal arches; arras and costly hangings decorated the fronts of the houses, and numberless banners and pennons floated in the breeze from the windows and points of the gables; the windows were filled with the beauty of the City—matrons and maidens; while the 'prentices and other venturous spirits perched themselves on the roofs, and the roadway below was densely crowded by citizens, who ever and anon made the welkin ring by their shouts of welcome. Sheriff Swinnerton, with ten followers in rich liveries, met the King at Waltham, and congratulated him on his safe arrival. At Stamford Hill he was met by the Lord Mayor Lee and the aldermen, all in scarlet robes, and 500 of the most eminent of the citizens, on horseback, all sumptuously apparelled in velvet, with gold chains round their necks. The procession passed slowly along, pausing at intervals to look upon some ingeniously-contrived pageant, and listen to the congratulations of the characters represented, and along Aldersgate Street to the Charter House, where the king was magnificently entertained by Lord Howard four days. In the evening the street was brilliantly illuminated by means of bonfires, cresset-bearers marching up and down, and lights from the windows.

In the last and the preceding centuries Little Britain was the great centre of the publishing and book-selling trades, and in Aldersgate Street, of which it is a tributary, there have lived several eminent members thereof. John Day, the famous printer, temp. Edward VI. and Elizabeth, occupied rooms over the gate. He printed a folio edition of the Bible, 1549, dedicated to King Edward VI.; published also the works of Ascham, Tindal, etc., and it was at his suggestion that Foxe wrote his Book of Martyrs, respecting which it was said—

Jacob Ilive, an eccentric printer, set up his press in London House, where he printed several of his own fantastic writings, such as "The speech of Mr. J. I., to his brothers, the Master Printers, on the Utility of Printing, 1730; etc., etc." Robert Chiswell, who died in 1711, of whom Dunton, in his Life and Errors, says, "The most eminent in his profession in the three kingdoms, I take to be Mr. Robert Chiswell, who well deserves the title of Metropolitan Bookseller of England, if not of all the world." John Hereford, whose last publication was the Newe Testament, 1548; Nicholas Borman; Anthony Scholcker, vix 1548, afterwards of Ipswich; William Tilly, who published the new Testament in 4to. in 1549; Henry Denham, at the sign of the Bear and Ragged Staff, Thomas Easte, at the sign of the Black Horse, and Thos. Whitchurch, at the sign of the Well and Two Buckets, St Martin's-le-Grand.