The London Wall was first built by the Romans around 200 AD. While a few sections remain to this day, a particularly impressive part can be found on the short walk between Tower Hill Underground station and Tower Gateway DLR station.
The eastern section of this wall began in what became the Tower of London and reached this point. What we see here goes back nearly 2000 years
Just beyond the wall, the walkway beyond - called Trinity Place - is a little underwhelming and a lot more modern. The Greater London Council created the walk and the open space to its south as part of the road widening scheme at Tower Hill in 1975.
About halfway along Trinity Place is a small entrance on the left. This was the site of one of the pioneering roads of the capital - “Circus”. This is not a misprint because I’ve neglected the first part. It was simply called Circus for the notable fact that this was the first road of this name in London. Circus was a Roman concept but it had never been applied as a street name before. The hundreds of roads that followed in its stead took their names from this - Piccadilly Circus, Cambridge Circus and many more lowly circular streets throughout the UK.
Circus was constructed from 1768 to 1774 under the architectural guidance of George Dance the Younger.
During the late 18th century, London experienced economic prosperity, partly fueled by the flourishing trade with the Americas. This period of growth created a need for high-quality housing catering to the newly affluent merchant class.
Sir Benjamin Hammett, a city alderman and property developer, secured the lease for the land hereabouts and enlisted the services of architect George Dance. His aim was to create a speculative residential development that would attract merchants to establish their residences in the City, strategically located near the bustling docks.
Not only was Circus built, but a road just to its north which he called simply “Crescent”, was also finished by 1774.
Crescent was the first planned crescent in London and introduced the concept of curved street frontages. Crescent was originally eleven identical houses.
North of Crescent was “America Square”. Thus was a square linked to a crescent and linked to a circus. Vaingloriously-named, if short, Hammett Street connected the development to the outside world at Minories.
Two years after all of these were complete, the United States gained its independence.
George Dance was likely influenced by John Wood's work in Bath but the success of Circus and Crescent set a precedent, and other architects, including John Nash, followed suit by connecting circuses, crescents and squares in a similar fashion in the West End.
A decade later, Dance replicated this concept with Finsbury Circus and Finsbury Square.
In 1841, Fenchurch Street - the City of London's first railway station - opened, leading to the construction of a railway viaduct that cut across the area between America Square and Crescent.
In 1884, the Metropolitan District Railway further altered the landscape by slicing diagonally through the southern half of The Crescent, resulting in the loss of five out of the eleven houses.
During the Second World War, America Square suffered extensive damage, resulting in the complete loss of its original houses. Nathan Meyer Rothschild had lived at No. 14 in the 19th century but a bomb in 1941 put paid to Rothschild’s house. Today, America Square is occupied by offices, restaurants and a gym.
Crescent lost four out of its remaining six houses, and in Circus, only one house remained intact. Post-war, the surviving house continued to be used for commercial purposes.
In 1962, the Tower Hill Improvement Trust acquired the local leases, which were later sold to the Greater London Council in 1975.
The GLC decided to demolish Circus and transformed the land into open space as part of the Tower Hill road widening scheme. Crescent, America Square and Hammett Street survived the final work of the bulldozer.
Nowadays, few know of these roads and their pioneering role in London nomenclature.