And in the basement of Bloomberg’s London headquarters, there’s also a reconstructed Roman temple dedicated to Mithras. It's free and open to the public. Interestingly, after it was discovered, they dismantled it, moved it elsewhere, then later rebuilt it piece by piece:
https://www.bloomberg.org/arts/advancing-the-arts-around-wor...
My cottage in wales is built smack atop a roman road, and the garden follows the line of the agger. At some point it degraded so much that people started walking in the roadside ditch instead, which is now a holloway.
I have a friend in Bath who has an extremely fine Roman mosaic under his basement floor - found during construction a few centuries ago and they just left it in situ, put clay atop it and laid flags. He rediscovered it about 15 years ago when they pulled the flagstones up to put in a damp-proof course. Likely part of the baths complex as his house is a stones throw from them. Archaeologists documented it, and it was then buried under sand and a damp-proof course.
Yep, Roman ruins are all over the place. I cycle past a chunk of the old London Wall regularly. Lullingstone Villa in Kent was a cool school trip as a kid.
And then there's this little wall running across Cumbria/Northumbria...
Finding Roman archaeology isn't unusual, but from the story it sounds like what's unusual is how early the building is in Roman London's history, and how central it is to the earliest Roman settlement?
Actually they had moved it to where it was originally.
It was excavated then reconstructed by some 1950s office block.
I imagine Bloomberg either thought of this as a key feature, or it was part of planning consent for their head quarters.
Access is free, but it has been restricted to reduced crowding. When I’ve been there it seemed there seemed to be a Bloomberg employee tour on, I’m not sure how much access is controlled by Bloomberg, but it was a surprisingly long way down in the ground.
I’m not sure how much lower ground level was in Roman times.
I worked in that 1950s office block (Temple Court) and was involved in the sale of the site to Bloomberg.
The Temple of Mithras sat outside the office a few feet from the pavement with free public access at all times. It attracted very little interest though as there wasn't much to mark it out.
IIRC it had to be moved as part of the redevelopment and the idea to relocate to its original location were a very early part of the proposals. Not a big deal as part of a very large project and obviously a way for Bloomberg to gain favour with the City of London planners.
There are a few interesting videos on YouTube on the history e.g.
The remains of London’s Roman amphitheatre are beneath Guildhall, in the basement of the public art gallery: https://www.thecityofldn.com/directory/londons-roman-amphith...
And in the basement of Bloomberg’s London headquarters, there’s also a reconstructed Roman temple dedicated to Mithras. It's free and open to the public. Interestingly, after it was discovered, they dismantled it, moved it elsewhere, then later rebuilt it piece by piece: https://www.bloomberg.org/arts/advancing-the-arts-around-wor...
Finally, the Roman baths at Billingsgate are open to visitors on weekends: https://www.thecityofldn.com/directory/billingsgate-roman-ho...