Aldgate Ward was in the most easterly part of the walled City of London. It included such streets as Aldgate, Leaden Hall Street, and Fenchurch Street. The name "Aldgate" is thought to come from one of four sources: Ęst geat meaning "Eastern gate" (Ekwall 36), Alegate from the Old English ealu meaning "ale," Aelgate from the Saxon meaning "public gate" or "open to all," or Aeldgate meaning "old gate" (Bebbington 20-21). The gate of the same name was one of the four original gates in the wall that was built by the Romans in about 200 A.D. In his Survey of London, John Stow remarks that Aldgate used to have two "portcloses" (portcullises), but in 1598 had only one (Stow 1:29). These portcullises would have been lowered at night to protect the City. The gate itself also doubled as a residence -- Geoffrey Chaucer lived above Aldgate from 1374 into the 1380s (Benson xx-xxii). In her poem, "The Manner of Her Will," Isabella Whitney points out that the city gates were also centres of commerce since they seem to have been a popular place for fruitsellers, or "fruit wives," to peddle their wares. She writes, "To every gate under the walls / that compass thee about, / I fruitwives leave to entertain / such as come in and out" (249-52). The gate was rebuilt in 1609 to include a statue of James I, and was eventually demolished in 1761 (Smith 14). Aldgate Ward was home to three halls: The Bricklayers' Hall, the Ironmongers' Hall, and the Fletchers' Hall (Stow 1:150). (A fletcher is someone who makes arrows.) The Ward also contained a pump located in the yard of the priory of Holy Trinity Church (Stow 1:138). Residents would draw drinking water from this pump rather than drink the unsanitary water of the Thames. Aldgate Street was important to London because it was part of a major east-west route through the City. -- Lacey Marshall, 2002