Exploring Roman London


A bronze statue of the Emperor Trajan
A bronze statue of Emperor Trajan by Tower Hill underground station.

 

I belong to a meetup group called “A walk in the past “.  This combines two of my loves, history which I studied at university and walking.   Normally we meet in Bristol or surrounding areas but last week we ventured further afield to London in search of Roman Londinium.  I was able to combine this with a visit to see my son who was happy to join me on the walk.

Walking through Roman London

Our group met at a suitably classical location, Trajan’s statue by Tower Hill tube station.  This is close to a surviving section of the Roman town wall. Roman walls can often be spotted as they have a tile level every couple of feet.  We were able to follow the wall for some distance and I was surprised by how much survives. We even found one section in a car park with the brown tile levels clearly visible.

A section of Roman wall found in a car park clearly showing the tile levels.
A section of Roman wall hiding in a car park.

Roman London is buried under modern London and much of it remained undiscovered for centuries.  However, during the second world war, the blitz destroyed many buildings revealing Roman remains.  One such building is the London Mithraeum, the remains of a temple to Mithras. It has been lovingly preserved and is now in the basement of the Bloomberg building, the European headquarters of the American corporation.  It is beautifully present with a sound and light show.  You can visit for free by prior arrangement. The London Mithraeum They also have an interesting display of Roman artefacts found at the site including part of a collection of over 400 wax writing tablets. Another important building in any Roman town was the amphitheatre.  The London amphitheatre remained hidden until 1988 when developers rebuilding the Guildhall discovered unusual curved walls.  You can see the remains in the basement of the Guildhall. (no charge).

Growth of  London

Originally, Colchester was the capital of Roman Britain but Londinium soon became more important.  Boudica led the Iceni on a raid which resulted in many wooden buildings being destroyed and it was decided to build a fort and walls to strengthen the town. Londinium became more important under the emperor Hadrian who used his own money to build civic buildings.    The Romans were able to build a bridge across the Thames near the site of the modern Tower Bridge and it became an important trading port.  Lead from the Mendips and copper and tin from Cornwall were traded for olive oil, wine and other luxury goods. I was shown the site of the London arena, where soldiers would have trained which was discovered about forty years ago and the enormous forum basilica. which is now under Leadenhall market.

The beautiful roof of Leadenhall market
Leadenhall market today
Image by 139904 from Pixabay

We ended our walk by looking at Roman artefacts in the excellent museum of London.  This is also free and is well worth a visit.  I particularly liked the model of the original London bridge.

My book recommendation

We did go back to London to discover the history of Southwark.  If you want to find out more about a walk in the past:  A walk in the Past

I joined some other bloggers in a collaborative post to recommend other attractions you can visit on the district line.

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