What did City Road Turnpike green plaque do at 112 City Road?

The Story

# City Road Turnpike Standing before 112 City Road, you're not looking at a person's home or workplace, but rather the ghost of a crucial piece of London's infrastructure that vanished nearly two centuries ago. The City Road Turnpike, which operated from 1766 to 1864, once stood at or very near this exact spot as a toll gate—a physical checkpoint where travelers moving between the City of London and the northern suburbs were required to pay fees that funded the maintenance of the road itself. For nearly a century, this location represented the boundary between the old City and the expanding metropolis beyond it, making it a liminal space where thousands of carts, carriages, and pedestrians passed through daily, their tolls steadily transforming City Road into one of London's most important thoroughfares. The turnpike's longevity at this address testifies to how vital this particular crossing became to London's growth and commerce; its eventual closure in 1864 marked not the end of the road's importance, but rather a fundamental shift in how the city chose to fund and manage its expanding infrastructure—a transition visible in the very street you're walking on today.