Ludgate Hill

The street passes through the former site of Ludgate, a city gate that was demolished – along with a gaol attached to it – in 1760.

The highest point is just north of St Paul's, at 17.6 metres (58 ft) above sea level.

Paternoster Square, home of the London Stock Exchange since 2004, is on the hill, immediately to the north of St Paul's Cathedral.

According to surveyor John Stow the name was derived from Isabella Savage, but Addison claimed it was "La belle Sauvage", a woman in the wilderness.

It is mentioned in Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays and Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers.

In 1806, a Roman hexagonal altar dedicated to Claudia Martina by her husband, now in the Guildhall, was found here together with a statue of Hercules.

Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender was printed by Hugh Singleton at the sign of the "Gylden tunne" in Creed Lane in 1579.

This was demolished at the Reformation, but the name persisted – in 1596 James Burbage, the manager of Shakespeare's acting company, The Lord Chamberlain's Men, acquired the lease to a part of the property that was already being used as a theatre.

It wasn't until 1609 that Shakespeare's company of actors (by then called The King's Men) was able to act at the Blackfriars Theatre.

[15] William Hone, journalist and publisher had an office near Ludgate Hill and the Old Bailey during the mid 1800s.