[1] One theory that has achieved widespread currency is that the name bears some relation to the 24 "jurats" (meaning "sworn men", and roughly equivalent to aldermen) of early medieval Leicester, the senior members of the Corporation, who were said to have met, as a "jury", in the town churchyard—possibly that of St Nicholas.

[6][7] The structure comprises alternate bands of Roman brick and coursed masonry, of local granite, limestone and sandstone.

[9] The wall lies immediately to the west of St Nicholas' Church, which includes in its late Saxon and early medieval fabric much reused Roman brick and masonry.

[9][10] The remains of the Roman town's public baths, immediately west of the wall, were excavated in four seasons from 1936 to 1939 by Kathleen Kenyon.

[13][14] The wall itself is a Grade I listed building; its wider site, including the adjacent remains of the baths and St Nicholas' Church, forms a scheduled monument.

[18] When she began her excavations in the late 1930s, Kenyon initially thought the overall site was that of the town forum (of which the basilica would have formed a part).

[9][11] This interpretation was abandoned when, in a series of excavations undertaken between 1961 and 1972, the true remains of the forum were firmly identified a block further east (Insula XXII).

The building is Grade II listed and below Vaughan College, home to Leicester University's Institute for Lifelong-Learning.

[12] In 2004, as part of a scheme of cost-cutting by Leicester City Council, it was proposed that the Jewry Wall Museum's hours be reduced.