Comments on: In Search Of The Walbrook

By: JerryW

JerryW — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:13:11 +0000

The photos have disappeared! Would love to have them back…

By: Ian Silverton

Ian Silverton — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 10:29:29 +0000

Temple of Mithras,has now moved too its original site,now based in the Bloomberg Under ground display at their new building in the city,open to the public,appointments only,but free of charge,worth a visit,they even supply head phone,I pads, and guides. My friends and I where among the first people to see it when they uncovered it back in the 50s, made headlines in the Daily Mail.

By: PaoloCamillo LAZZARI

PaoloCamillo LAZZARI — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 20:29:43 +0000

Fantastica orografia,ci fa capire i luoghi in cui viviamo e la loro storia: quello che si poteva coltivare ,dove,come,quanto. quel che si poteva costruire in un determinato luogo,e quel che no…e così via..

Traduzione : Sorry for my approximative english.

Fantastic orography,let us understand the places where we live,their history : what was possible cultivate,where,how,how much. What was possible to build in a certain place,and what was not…and so on…

By: James Frankcom

James Frankcom — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:05:31 +0000

I understood that the name “Walbrook” is of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and dates to the earliest period of their settlement. Some time around 550AD when sub-Roman Londinium yielded to the might of the East Saxons (whom it would seem had placed the city under siege) the Romano-British inhabitants with their valued trading contacts with France, Spain and elsewhere were permitted to remain but were compelled to live on the east side of the stream which ran through the middle of the old city. This stream became the dividing line between the Welsh and the Saxons and hence got the name Wal-brook (“Wal” being a derivation of “Wealh” and the etymological root of the words Wales, Cornwall, Wallonia and Wallachia, it being a Germanic word used to describe any inhabitant of the former Roman Empire who did not speak Latin). For trade to flourish the Saxons had to respect the Romano-Britons (Welshmen) who remained in “Lundonburg”…and from this origin, so it goes, the paramount authority of the Lord Mayor of London is derived – represented today by the way the English sovereign must touch the Lord Mayor’s sword and thus acknowledge this authority before entering the City. It is further symbolised by the dragons which guard the city limits.

Going back even further in time to around 100BC this little stream ran between the two hills upon which London was originally founded, legend has it, by a king named ‘Llud map Beli’. Legend has it that there had been two rival communities on Cornhill and Ludgate Hill who would fight each other around the fording of the Walbrook which lay between them. Llud (after whom Ludgate is named) united the two communities and this place, with a presumed spiritual significance to the ancient Britons, was occupied by the Romans under Claudius c.34AD.

By: John Trimmer

John Trimmer — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:29:10 +0000

Hello,
Interesting piece about the Walbrook.
I can provide you with some social history from the Medieval period.
The Welsh cattle drovers established a settlement on the banks of the stream in the early 1300’s which they called Llundain,having travelled from North Wales on Watling Street.They established hundreds of these settlements in Southern England.
There is an archive record from the Dictionary of London by Henry Harben (1918) in 1388 and 1434;
“Tenement of Robert Cok with houses and gardens in the parish of All Hallows (atte wall) called Little London situate near a tenement belonging to the work of London Bridge , extending from the highway near London Wall north as far as the ditch of Walbrok south”.
Hoping you may find this interesting.
Regards
John Trimmer.