Billingsgate Roman House and Bathhouse, London

Thanks to the London Open House event, this weekend offered a rare opportunity to visit one of London’s hidden Roman gems, Billingsgate Roman House and Bathhouse. Now located deep in a basement under a modern office block, these Roman remains are the best preserved in the city, and a recently installed walkway now allows visitors to get a great overview of the entire site. Given the limited chances available to view it, its perhaps not surprising that Billingsgate Roman House and Bathhouse attracted huge crowds, the queue for entry stretching right along Lower Thames Street.

First discovered in 1848, the site was further excavated in the late 19th and mid to late 20th centuries. The house was probably first built in the 2nd century CE, and due to changes in the level of the Thames, would once have sat right on the river bank. The building underwent various alterations, taking its final form in the 3rd century when the small bathhouse was added in its courtyard. The addition of this bathhouse has suggested to modern archaeologists that the house may have been converted into a mansio, or inn, around this time.

The north wing of the Billingsgate Roman House

Billingsgate House and Bath house is the only surviving example of Londinium‘s domestic buildings. The extensive use of stone in its construction suggests that it was a high-status residence, as does the use of hypocausts to heat its main rooms.

The tessellated floor of the Billingsgate Roman Bath House

As Roman power in Britain began to fade, the north wing of the house seems to have been deserted first. A hoard of over 270 late Roman coins found hidden in the furnace wall in the east wing suggest that this section, along with the bath, was in use into the early 5th century. Finally the site was totally abandoned, buried under layers of debri and later buildings until its rediscovery just over 160 years ago.

The foundations of the warm room of Billingsgate Bath House

Unfortunately the Billingsgate Roman House and Bathhouse is only open on a few days every year. Look out for forthcoming dates on the website of London Open House.
More details about the Billingsgate Roman House and Bathhouse can be found here, and a number of the discoveries made during the excavation can also be viewed at the nearby Museum of London.

London’s Roman Wall, Tower Hill

Just a few steps away from the Roman tessellated pavement at All Hallows by the Tower stands another impressive reminder of London’s Roman past. Constructed around 200 C.E., the short stretch of Roman Wall on Tower Hill is one of the tallest and best preserved sections of the city’s ancient defences.

London’s Roman Wall, Tower Hill

In fact, only the lower 4.4 metres of the current wall are purely Roman, and can be easily recognised thanks to its distinctive courses of red tile. The Roman city wall probably stood to a height of around 6 metres, and would have been surmounted by a battlemented walkway and bordered by a wide ditch. It was around 4 kilometres long in total, and in the 4th Century regular D-shaped bastions were added to provide placements for catapults, no doubt in response to growing unrest in the region. The top part of the Tower Hill wall, which currently reaches a height of 10.6 metres, is medieval, and demonstrates the later re-use of the Roman defences. Like most of the other surviving lengths of London’s city wall, this stretch was hidden for many years amongst later buildings, a fact which no doubt helped preserve it for posterity.

The Statue of Trajan next to London’s Roman Wall, Tower Hill

Today the wall stands proud and tall, even if its location next to a busy a road and the entrance to Tower Hill tube station is rather lacking in atmosphere.  A statue of Trajan has been placed in the garden next to it, despite the emperor having no particular links with the wall. Still, I suppose he draws the attention of passing tourists to its Roman origins!

A side view of London’s Roman Wall, Tower Hill

Roman Tessellated Pavement, All Hallows by the Tower, London

As I discovered during my recent visit to Chichester Cathedral, the remains of Roman Britain sometimes pop up in the strangest places.

All Hallows by the Tower, London

This week I made a visit to All Hallows by the Tower, a historic church which sits by a busy road next to the world-famous Tower of London. Dating back to the 7th Century, All Hallows by the Tower is the oldest church in the City of London, and the structure still includes an impressive Saxon arch as well as medieval and more recent elements. But head down a narrow stone staircase into the crypt and you will find a reminder of a much earlier incarnation of the city, one that pre-dates the church by around five hundred years.

A Roman tessellated pavement in the crypt of All Hallows by the Tower

This well-preserved section of tessellated pavement is thought to have formed the floor of a 2nd Century townhouse, which would have been located toward the south-east corner of the Roman town. The white gully which cuts across it is probably the line of a wall, with evidence of plaster along its edges.

A display of Roman finds from All Hallows by the Tower, London

Also on display in the crypt of All Hallows by the Tower are artefacts found in and around the church and crypt, including pottery and metalwork, and a rather lovely (if now out of date) early 20th Century model which recreates the layout of Roman Londinium.

Find out more about visiting All Hallows by the Tower here.