The Curfew Tower (or Fire Bell Gate) formed the E entrance to the abbey precinct, and is the only abbey building remaining. It is a 2-storey gateway of coursed rubble and stone dressings, dating from the period around 1500. It has inner and outer archways with 4-centred arches to the E and W, and an octagonal stair in the NW corner. The upper storey formed the Chapel of the Holy Rood, and it houses the late-12thc stone Rood described below. The upper storey was largely rebuilt in the late-19thc.

According to Bede, Erkenwald (Bishop of London 675-93) founded Barking Abbey as a nunnery for his sister Ethelburga before he became bishop. The actual foundation date is a complex issue, but the suggestion of 666 argued in VCH is a reasonable one. In 1066 the abbess was Aefgiva, and her status was confirmed by William I. The formal dissolution of the abbey was in November 1539, when the abbess and 30 other nuns were granted pensions.

The date of the Barking Rood has long been a matter of dispute. Prior and Gardiner (1912) considered it a pre-Conquest work of c.1000 AD, but Zarnecki’s analysis of 1953 , and his mid-12thc dating have generally been accepted, e.g. by Cherry and O’Brien (2005). Parallels offered are with the more famous Chichester Reliefs (qv) and with manuscript painting, especially the Bury Bible. Zarnecki himself suggested a metalwork connection, but little survives to confirm this. The link with the Chichester reliefs is no more than a generic connection between rare large-scale figural reliefs; the Sussex figures are much more theatrical and expressive than these.