Artist impression. Guidhall Art Galley
We all know about Roman gladiators, probably watched the movie Gladiator and can picture the great Colosseum in Rome where bloody gladiatorial duels were fought and wild animals slaughtered. But did you know that this ‘entertainment’ took place in London as well?
For over four hundred years, well before the Anglo Saxons came, England was occupied by the Romans. London, or Londinium as it was called then, was at its very heart and like all Roman outposts, would have tried to emulate Rome by building grand civic buildings including a forum, the odd bathhouse or two and of course, an impressive amphitheatre.
Artists impression. Guildhall Art Gallery
It was the Wembley Stadium of its day, could hold up to 6000 people, and was where all the major events including gladiatorial duels – and fair to say, a good deal of bloodletting – took place.
Unfortunately, like so much of old London, it was lost to sight over the centuries as the capital grew and underwent countless building and new building, and although the archaeologists probably had a good idea of where it might be, no-one was really sure.
By Fremantleboy, Drallim (translation) – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Map_Londinium_400_AD-de.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25150075
So imagine the excitement when in 1988, during the building of the new Art Gallery next to the Guildhall, archaeologists discovered the remains of the Roman amphitheatre that had lay hidden for nearly 1500 years.
Image By It's No Game – The Guildhall, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114318998
To view the amphitheatre, turn into the courtyard in front of the Guildhall and Art Gallery from Gresham Street and look down. You’ll notice a dark circular line on the ground.. This marks the 80-metre perimeter of where the amphitheatre stood.
What’s left of the amphitheatre can be viewed as it was, in the carefully preserved glass basement of the Guildhall Art gallery (free to view). And while admittedly it’s not quite as awesome as the still largely intact Colosseum in Rome, it still with a bit of imagination, conjures up a London of very long time ago, and a very different age.
