Ancient pieces of London
I’m not particularly into old blocks of stone. People have shown me ruins of priories, ruins of castles, ruins of palaces, and they usually leave me cold.
But there are two remnants of ancient London within a few minutes’ walk of each other that really do make me stop and wonder. They’re both in the middle of the modern City – between office blocks and busy roads – and they both hark back to London’s most ancient past.
First, the Mithraeum, in Queen Victoria Street. It’s actually been resited since it was discovered – it was found in Walbrook, the other side of the main road. It would have been an underground sanctuary for Mithras, the most popular god of the Roman Army. Originally a Persian deity, his cult had many similarities to Christianity – he was a god who had sacrificed himself, and cult members underwent a symbolic baptism, death and rebirth. The difference was that this was baptism with bull’s blood, not water. The mystery cults eventually disappeared and this Mithraeum slumbered undisturbed for nearly 1500 years before being rediscovered in 1954.
Now turn down to Cannon Street, and on the wall of a bank just opposite Cannon treet Station you’ll see the London Stone, secured behind a metal grille. It really doesn’t look like much, but it’s considered to be of Saxon, or Roman, or even pre-Roman British origin. If you’ve read Peter Ackroyd or Iain Sinclair you’ll find that this stone holds great significance for them – it’s the original foundation stone, the omphalos or navel of the city.
If you head towards the Guildhall you’ll find another piece of Roman London. The Roman amphitheatre of London was found here during building work and the outline of the building has been traced out on the pavement of the square in front of the Guildhall. Deep in the basement, the original building has been preserved.
The City of London is the original Roman London and its boundaries haven’t changed much over the ages. The west walls ran just to the right of the river Fleet – not far from where Farringdon is today – and unsurprisingly, London Wall, that cuts through between the Barbican and the City, is on the lines of the wall. Then the walls took a turn towards Tower Hill – and it’s there that you can see probably the best piece of preserved Roman wall, showing the brick levelling courses which were used to keep the stone-faced rubble mix on track.
Bishopsgate still runs along the line of the Roman road from Ermine Street (heading north) towards London Bridge and Watling Street. Leadenhall Market is probably on the site of the Roman basilica and forum, and if you go to the British Museum you can see a superb mosaic floor that was discovered in Leadenhall Street early in the nineteenth century. South of the river, Borough Market claims Roman origins too.
So though the Romans have left relatively little of their time here – certainly London has nothing to compete with the Colosseum or the Pantheon – if you want to spend half an hour or so following their footsteps, you can still find signs of their presence.
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