Editing Moorgate (section)

==The gate==
[[File:Moorgate Hollar.PNG|thumb|The Moorgate, 1650]]
[[File:Moorgate gate.jpg|left|thumb|An engraving showing Moorgate before it was demolished in 1762]]
The earliest descriptions of Moorgate date from the early 15th century, where it was described as only a [[postern]] in the [[London Wall|London city wall]]. Located between [[Bishopsgate]] and [[Cripplegate]] and leading to a marshy open space known as [[Moorfields]], it was not one of the larger or more important of the city gates.

In 1415 an [[local ordinance|ordinance]] enacted that the old postern be demolished.  It was replaced with a newer and larger structure located farther to the west, which included a wooden [[gate]] to be shut at night.  This gate was enlarged again in 1472 and 1511, and then damaged in the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666.  Although the City gates had ceased to have any modern function apart from decoration, it was replaced along with [[Ludgate]], [[Newgate]], and [[Temple Bar, London|Temple Bar]] with a stone gate in 1672.
[[File:City of London Ward Map, 1870.svg|thumb|The Moorgate linked the parts of Coleman Street Ward on either side of London's Wall]]

Moorgate and the Wall originally formed the northern boundary of [[Coleman Street Ward]]. It appears that the area outside, the once very marshy [[Moorfields|Lower and Little Moorfields]] (now mostly occupied by [[Finsbury Circus]] and the surrounding buildings), previously part of the [[Finsbury|Manor of Finsbury]] were added in the 17th century,{{efn|The Ward did not extend beyond the wall at the time of John Stows survey of 1603 – but it did by the time of Ogilby and Morgans map of 1676}} though it was not developed until 1817.

Moorgate was demolished with most of the other London city wall gates in 1761/2, and the resulting stone was sold for £166 to the [[City of London Corporation]] to support the [[Starling (architecture)|starlings]] of the newly widened centre arch of the [[London Bridge]].

Little Moorgate was a postern opposite [[Little Winchester Street]] leading into [[Moorfields]]. It had been demolished by 1755, but gave its name to a street <ref>Boyle, P. ''Boyle's View of London, and its Environs''; 1799. London, accessed at [http://www.londonancestor.com/boyle/str-l.htm] 2008-04-12</ref> that was later removed for the building of a railway.