Billingsgate Roman House and Baths is an archaeological site in
Londinium (Roman
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
). The best preserved parts of the house are a bath with
hypocaust
A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...
s. The ruins were discovered in 1848 while the
Coal Exchange was built on the site. The remains were preserved and were visible in the cellar of the building. In 1967 to 1970, the Coal Exchange was replaced by another building and the
Lower Thames Street
Thames Street, divided into Lower and Upper Thames Street, is a road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It forms part of the busy A3211 route (prior to being rebuilt as a major thoroughfare in the late 1960s, it ...
was enlarged. Further excavations were made at the site and the remains were incorporated into the cellar of the new building, but were not open to the public.
Pottery has shown that the Roman house was erected in the late 2nd century and had at this time a north and an east wing around a courtyard. There was most likely also a west wing but nothing of it survived. At this time the house was at the waterfront of the
Thames. The rooms in the east wing had
underfloor heating.
In the 3rd century a bath was added into the open courtyard in the middle of the complex. It had a cold room, a
frigidarium (blue on the map) a warm room, (
tepidarium - pink) and a hot room (
caldarium
230px, Caldarium from the Roman Baths at Bath, England. The floor has been removed to reveal the empty space where the hot air flowed through to heat the floor.
A caldarium (also called a calidarium, cella caldaria or cella coctilium) was a room ...
- red on the map). The whole complex was in use till the beginning of the 5th century. Several hundred coins of the late 4th century were found at the excavations. This is of special importance as there is little known about the
end of the Roman rule in Britain, and this house attests a large-scale building in use until the beginning of the 5th century. However, the house was most likely already in ruins by the year 500. An Anglo-Saxon brooch was found within fallen material from the roof.
[John Wacher: ''The Towns of Roman Britain'', London and New York (second edition), , p. 109]
Gallery
File:Billingsgate roman house 2.jpg, View on hypocaust
File:Londinium residental.png, Plan of the remains of the Roman house at Billingsgate
File:Billingsgate Bath House, 23 September 2018 (2) (43208513210).jpg, Model of Billingsgate Bath House
File:Billingsgate Bath House, 23 September 2018 (4) (44108540605).jpg, Pawprint on a Roman tile found at Billingsgate Bath House
File:Billingsgate Bath House, 23 September 2018 (14) (45019427971).jpg
File:Billingsgate Roman Bath House 1.jpg
File:Billingsgate Roman Bath House 2.jpg
File:Billingsgate Roman Bath House 3.jpg
File:Billingsgate Roman Bath House 4.jpg
File:Billingsgate Roman Bath House 5.jpg
File:Billingsgate Roman Bath House 6.jpg
File:Image taken from page 666 of 'Old and New London, etc' (11188498656).jpg, When first discovered in 1848, the builders of the New '' Coal Exchange'' preserved the remains in the basement, and provided viewing access
References
External links
Billingsgate Roman Bath House
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Roman London
1848 in London
Houses in the City of London
Buildings and structures in Roman Britain