Exploring the Secrets of Hidden City at Castle Baynard Street

Castle Baynard Street is named after the building that once occupied a nearby site.

There is a suggestion that the original building was a fort that was in situ around 1017. After the Norman Conquest, it was rebuilt (or just built if the 1017 fort was located somewhere else) & occupied by Ralph Baynard. By 1213, it was owned by Robert Fitzwalter. His daughter had caught the eye of King John & Fitzwater is believed to have taken up arms against the King to defend his daughter’s honour. This might be a fanciful tale as Fitzwalter may have looked to rebel against the King over a tax dispute. Whatever the reason, John exiled Fitzwalter & had Castle Baynard destroyed.  

A new building which shared the originals name & located about 100 meters to the southeast was constructed about 250 years later. Excavations in the 1970s found that the north wall of this second building had used sections of the Roman riverside wall were used for the foundations.  King Edward IV was crowned here, & his brother Richard III was later offered the throne in this building. Henry VII would stay there & his son Henry VIII gave the castle to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

This second building was eventually destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. One of the towers did survive & became a private dwelling whilst the rest of the site became a timber yard. The tower would eventually be pulled down in the 1800s to make way for warehouses.   

Today, the site of the castle is occupied by the brutalist Baynard House. The road itself appeared in the James Bond, Spectre.  

📍 Location 

Baynard’s House 

145 Queen Victoria St 

London  EC4V 4AA 

Nearest public transport is Blackfriars Station (Circle, District lines).  

Why not explore some of the architectural delights London has to offer with one of the GuidesofLondon tours?