The wall's moat forms the street of Houndsditch. This was once London's main rubbish disposal site and was notorious for its appalling odour; its name, according to 16th-century historian John Stow, was derived "from that in old time, when the same lay open, much filth (conveyed forth of the City) especially dead dogges were there laid or cast". The moat was finally covered over and filled in at the end of the 16th century, becoming the line of the aforementioned street.