Bridegate Redoubt

Bridegate Redoubt was the reclaimers' second attempt at London and their first serious one. Oxford had sent licensed expeditions into the Thames ruins from 3956, and in 3964 Saint Bride's Lantern Camp was raised behind timber and a consecrated ditch; in 3967 the Night of Ashen Mouths broke it before relief could come. Five years later, in 3972, Bridegate was founded at the old river crossing as a true fortified post, built of earth, timber and salvaged stone and meant to outlast both winter and assault. It was the first such work in the Thames ruins, and Westminster Rise Palisade, begun in 3984, became the second.

For the next generations the two posts were footholds and not yet a city, tied together by ferries, guarded stairs and escorted lines of supply. In the Stairs Wars of 4006 to 4014, relic hunters, mercenary bands, guild companies and toll captains fought each other through the lower ruin, and the redoubt's discipline mattered as much as its walls. The Cold Quay Accord of 4015 placed under Oxford, St Albans and restored-crown oversight the descents, the salvage rights and the fortified approach posts, and the Ash Scouring of 4041 opened the way to the capital proper.

General Roderic Hale of Bridegate is the redoubt's remembered man, kept alive less as a dated name than in redoubt lore and in old soldiers' sermons about camp discipline and stubborn ground. The name Bridegate stayed with the crossing as London grew over it: a fight at Bridegate Tollhouse belongs to the syndicate war of 4406 to 4408, and an insurrection at Bridegate in 4473 and 4474 is remembered though its course is not. Bridegate Churchyard, by the old crossing, holds the oldest stones in the Commons, and the Bridegate processional cross went to David Ashdown's Society at auction in 4619, to Lady Constance Mary Alderwick's lasting resentment.

Little of the redoubt is plainly visible now, and what remains is said to lie under later stone about the churchyard and the crossing. Bridegate Lower Steps, beneath the churchyard, are known as the stair where old river memory never dries out. A visitor may walk the churchyard freely; the steps are a descent, and nobody should take them without a crew.