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Aldgate is a district inside the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and partly the City of London. It was the eastern-most gateway via the London Wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the East End of London. It gave its name to a City ward bounded by White Kennet Street in the north and Crutched Friars towards the south. The district’s name was initially recorded in 1052 as ‘East gate’, but became Alegate by 1108. In the sixteenth century, John Stow derived the name from ‘Old Gate’. But Henry Harben, writing in 1918, stated that this was incorrect and that documents show a different variation written prior to 1486-7. Other meanings include ‘Ale Gate’, connected with an ale-house or ‘All Gate’, meaning the gate was free to everyone. It is thought that a gate at Aldgate spanned the road to Colchester in the Roman period, when London Wall was constructed. The gateway stood in the corner of the modern Duke’s palace on the east side of the city. It was rebuilt between 1108 and 1147, and again in 1215. It was reconstructed totally between 1607 and 1609 in a more classical style. As the other London gates, Aldgate was chained in 1377 as a result of concerns about attacks from the French. The gate was eventually removed in 1761 and temporarily re-erected in Bethnal Green.