Houndsditch is a street running through parts of the Portsoken and Bishopsgate Without wards of the City of London; areas which are also a part of the East End of London. The road follows the line of the outside edge of the ditch which once ran outside the London Wall. The road took its name from the section of ditch between Bishopsgate and Aldgate. The name may derive from the widespread dumping of rubbish in this stretch of ditch; relating to the dumping of dead dogs, or the scavenging of the waste by feral dogs.

The London Wall is a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in c. AD 200, as well as the name of a modern street in the City of London, England.