Monuments & Ruins

Not every statue in London. The ones worth crossing the road for: Roman wall, medieval ruins, and the monuments that earn a detour.

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Barking Abbey and the Curfew Tower

The footprint of one of the great nunneries of England, and its one standing gate.

MedievalRuinsFree

Photo by MRSC at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Founded in 666 by Erkenwald, Bishop of London, for his sister Ethelburga, and for eight centuries a house of royal and noble abbesses who ranked with barons and sat in council. Henry VIII closed it in 1539 and the buildings were quarried away within a decade. The outline is marked out in low walls and gravel in a park beside the parish church, and the only building left is the Curfew Tower of 1460, a gateway with a chapel over it that holds a twelfth-century carving of the crucifixion.

Where
Broadway, Barking, IG11 8AS
Nearest station
Barking · 6 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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