page_title: Aldersgate
section_title: The arts
hierarchical_section_title: Aldersgate / Ward of Aldersgate / History / The arts
caption_attribution_description: English: 134 Aldersgate Street, London. Courtesy of British Library.
context_page_description: Aldersgate was one of the northern gates in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London.
  It gave its name to the City Ward of Aldersgate, traditionally divided into Aldersgate Within and Aldersgate Without, the suffix denoting whether the part was within the line of the wall or outside it. In 2013 the ancient ward boundaries were redrawn, the names are preserved but their location only loosely approximates to their historic extent.
  The gate also gave its name to Aldersgate Street, which runs north from the former gate towards Clerkenwell. The street was wholly part of Aldersgate Without until a short section further north was renamed and so added to it.
context_section_description: The poet Thomas Flatman was born in a house in Aldersgate Street in 1633. As with most historic buildings on this stretch of road, the building no longer stands. At Nos. 35-38 stood Shaftesbury House, built around 1644 by Inigo Jones.  It was demolished in 1882. Lauderdale House was demolished in 1708, the London home of the Duke of Lauderdale and earlier the house of his mother-in-law, the Countess of Home.
  No. 134 for many years had a sign claiming: "This was Shakespeare's House". Although the building was very close to the nearby Fortune Playhouse, there is no documentary evidence surviving to indicate that Shakespeare resided here; a subsidy roll from 1598 shows a "William Shakespeare" as owner of the property, but there is nothing to indicate that it is the playwright. The building no longer exists, and Barbican station now occupies the site. The nearby Shakespeare Tower is named for this (tenuous) connection. At the point where Aldersgate Street changes its name to Goswell Road there is also a public house "The Shakespeare".
caption: 134 Aldersgate Street, Shakespeare's House - demolished in 1879
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