This is the site of one of the six Roman gates in the town wall, providing access to the river Colne and the northern suburbs of Colchester. A North Gate remained fn use for many centuries and was only finally demolished m 1823.
Nothing of the gate is now visible and its site has only been excavated once. In 3944 workmen uncovered part of the gate while digging a trench for an electricity cable. The remains of the curved eastern side of the gateway were found immediately below the pavement. The gate was built of alternating courses of tile and a local stone known as septaria in a similar way to that seen elsewhere on the Colchester Roman Wall at Duncan's Gate. It is likely to have had a single archway and an overhead walkway.
Between North Gate and Headgate ran the main north-south street of the Roman town - today's North Hill and Head Street. This was crossed at the top of the hill by the main east-west street, of which High Street still forms the major part.
The North Gate appears in a number of 18th century views of the town. An engraving by John Prior rn 1724 shows the gate as a substantial building with a gabled roof which was jprobably constructed in the medieval period. This roof was subsequently removed in 1774.