7 CITY GATES LONDON

The seven city gates, most of them built in the first instance by I he Romans (although, like the Wall, they were regularly rebuilt and renovated through the centuries), were all demolished at the beginning of the 1760s. They were:
1. Aldersgate
First built by the Romans but named after an otherwise unknown Saxon called Ealdred, the gate stood opposite what is now 62 Aldersgate Street and led out into Watling Street, the Roman road to Dover. It was the gate through which James I, having journeyed from Scotland, first entered his new capital city in 1603.
2.  Aldgate
When he was appointed Controller of the Customs for hides, skins and wools in the port of London in 1374, Geoffrey Chaucer was granted a lease on a dwelling above Aldgate. The gate was demolished, along with the others, in the early 1760s, although it was briefly re-erected at Bethnal Green.
3. Bishopsgate
The gate takes its name from a seventh-century Bishop of London, Eorconweald, who had it rebuilt on its Roman foundations during his episcopacy. In the Middle Ages, the bishops of London made hinges for the gate and in return received one stick from every cart of wood that passed through it. The gate stood opposite where the NatWest Tower now stands.
4. Cripplegate
The derivation of its name - either from the cripples who gathered there to beg or from the fact that there was a hospital for cripples close to the site - would seem to be straightforward but scholars are not certain. It could derive from an Anglo-Saxon word 'crepel' meaning 'underground passage'. It was through Cripplegate that Elizabeth I rode into her capital for the first time as queen.
5. Ludgate
Traditionally supposed to have been built by the legendary King Lud in the first century bc, the gate was almost certainly, like most of the others, the work of the Romans. It stood opposite St Martin's Church on Ludgate Hill.
6. Moorgate
Not built until the fifteenth century, Moorgate led out of the City Wall into fields and fens beyond. Demolished in 1762, along with its older fellows, its stones were recycled and used to shore up London Bridge.
7. Newgate
As the name suggests, Newgate was built after the Romans had built many of the other city gates but it still dated back to at least the ninth century and possibly even earlier. The prison, for which it is best remembered, was in existence in the area by the twelfth century.
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I never knew that about London - Kensington

Kensington High Street
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One of London's best-kept secrets can be found 100 ft (30 m) up on top of the old Derry & Toms building at 99 Kensington High Street. Laid out in 1938, the Kensington Roof Gardens cover 1V2 acres (0.6 ha) and form the biggest roof gardens in Europe. There are three different gardens, with 500 species of plants, fountains, a
stream, ducks, flamingos, a restaurant and a night-club. Since 1981 the gardens have been owned by Richard Branson's Virgin group and are used for functions and hospitality.
No. 18 Stafford Terrace was the home of Linley Sambourne, the Punch cartoonist. The house and contents have been preserved unchanged as an authen­tic Victorian experience and can be visited at weekends.
Kensington Palace Gardens, or 'Billionaire's Boulevard' which runs between Notting Hill Gate and Kens­ington High Street behind Kensington Palace, is regarded as London's most exclusive address. It is certainly London's most expensive address. In 2005 Britain's richest man, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, is thought to have paid Bernie Ecclestone £70 million for Nos. 18—19 Kensington Palace Gardens -making it, at the time, the most expen­sive house in the world.
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