Lines of Communication (London)


The Lines of Communication were English Civil War fortifications commissioned by Parliament and built around London between 1642 and 1643 to protect the capital from attack by the Royalist armies of Charles I.
In 1642 some basic fortifications were built, in the form of street barricades and small earthworks.
In 1643 a major construction effort was made, to provide a comprehensive ring of fortifications around the city. Much of the work was done by volunteer labour, organized by the trained bands and the livery companies. Up to 20,000 people are thought to be involved, and the works were completed in under two months.
The fortifications failed their only test when the New Model Army entered London in 1647, and they were levelled by Parliament the same year.

The Works

These works principally consisted of a strong earthen rampart reinforced with a series of 23 fortifications of various types surrounding the whole City, and its liberties, at a distance of one and a half to two miles from the city centre. From George Vertue's print it may be seen that the line begun below the Tower of London, at the Thames, and went northward towards the windmill in Whitechapel Road; then inclining to the north-west, it crossed the Hackney and Kingsland Roads, near Shoreditch, and turning to the south-west, crossed the end of St. John Street, Gray's Inn Lane, Bloomsbury, and Oxford Road, near St. Giles Pound. Then proceeding westward to Hyde Park Corner, and Constitution Hill, it inclined towards Chelsea Turnpike, Tothill Fields, and the Thames. Again commencing near Vauxhall, it ran north-eastward to St. George's Fields, then making an angle to the east, crossed the Borough Road at the end of Blackman Street on the Deptford Road, then inclining to the north-east, joined the Thames nearly opposite to the point where it began.
The major fortifications were anti-clockwise from the north-east bank of the Thames:
East
North

North
West
South of the Thames