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Aldgate is a district within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and partly the City of London. It was the eastern-most gateway by way of 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 towards the north and Crutched Friars in the south. The district’s name was initially recorded in 1052 as ‘East gate’, but became Alegate by 1108. During the sixteenth century, John Stow derived the name from ‘Old Gate’. But Henry Harben, writing in 1918, said that this was wrong and that documents show another variation written before 1486-7. Other meanings include ‘Ale Gate’, in connection 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 during the Roman period, when London Wall was built. The gateway stood at the corner of the modern day Duke’s palace on the east side of the city. It was rebuilt between 1108 and 1147, and once again in 1215. It was reconstructed completely between 1607 and 1609 in a more classical style. Like the other London gates, Aldgate was chained in 1377 as a consequence of concerns about attacks from the French. The gate was finally removed in 1761 and temporarily re-erected in Bethnal Green.