The Barbican was built in 1539, together with the castle's at Deal, Snowdon and Walmer as part of King Henry VIII's chain of defences to guard against the threat of French invasion. Beneath the arch is a list of old toll charges for the bridge with a plaque recording their abolition in 1977. Another plaque recalls the presence of 5,000 Jews in 1939 who fled Nazi persecution and were housed in the First World War Camp in Richborough.