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GhostOfClayton

Things to do in Londinium

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I will be stuck in London for a couple of days during February. I have stuff I need to do in the evenings, but will have time to kill during the day. My situation is a good vehcle for creating a list of things for the Romanophile to do/see in or around London?

 

I'll start with:

 

The British Museum

The Museum of London

The Victoria and Albert

 

all of which have some excellent Roman displays/galleries. There's also:

 

The Roman Wall near Tower Bridge Tube station.

 

Anyone think of anything else?

 

Let's also consider things which you can see by taking the train out of London (which is what I may well do). Please qualify your answer with whether or not your suggestion is available 'out of season'.

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The remains of the amphitheater can be seen in the basement of the Guildhall. If I recall it correctly I could get a ticket just to see the amphitheater without having entrance to the Art Gallery, but I'm not too sure about. I just see that the entrance to the amphitheater is free. On the yard of the Guildhall is pavement in black stones which outline the amphitheater.

 

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the-city/attractions-museums-and-galleries/guildhall-art-gallery-and-roman-amphitheatre/Pages/Guildhall%20Art%20Gallery%20default.aspx

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The remains of the amphitheater can be seen in the basement of the Guildhall. If I recall it correctly I could get a ticket just to see the amphitheater without having entrance to the Art Gallery, but I'm not too sure about. I just see that the entrance to the amphitheater is free. On the yard of the Guildhall is pavement in black stones which outline the amphitheater.

 

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the-city/attractions-museums-and-galleries/guildhall-art-gallery-and-roman-amphitheatre/Pages/Guildhall%20Art%20Gallery%20default.aspx

 

Do you have any pictures of it? I would be very interested in seeing how it looks!

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If you go to the Guildhall to see the amphitheatre how about a quick look at the Temple of Mithrasa which is fairly nearby on Queen Victoria Street about half-way between Bank and Monument tube stations.

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Do you have any pictures of it? I would be very interested in seeing how it looks!

 

Unfortunately I only have pics of the yard, not from the remains of the amphitheater. I guess it wasn't allowed to take pictures there and I had to put my backpack including the photo camara in a locker. :angry:

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To spread the net a little wider, I've also come up with Crofton Roman Villa in Orpington, and Lullingstone Roman Villa in Eynsford. An hour to an hour and a half away by train are also Pevensey Castle and Canturbury Roman Museum.

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There is also St Albans with a great Roman themed museum along with Roman remains - it only takes about 40 mins to an hour from London.

 

Similarly Chelmsford is only 32 minutes away.

 

Going the other way Oxford is about an hour away and the Ashmolean has 3 or 4 Roman relate galleries although its collection is much larger and somewhat idiocyncratically displayed since its major refurbishment.

 

What you will have to consider is which station you can reach easily in London since that can add 30 or 40 minutes to your journey time depending where you are leaving from.

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I discovered an iPhone/iPad app called Streetmuseum Londinium (not sure if it's available on Android).  It's published by the Museum of London, so excellent credentials, and is free.

 

I'm travelling down on Tuesday, and although I'll have to work evenings, daytimes will be my own for a few days.  I'll try out the app, and report back.

 

I intend to visit Canterbury Roman Museum one day.

 

What's in Chelmsford?

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Best to visit British Museum a couple or three short times rather than one long time because they chronically close down sections due to staff shortages. Maybe fit in their evening hours for one but that can be the worst for closing juicy roman stuff, maybe in a darkened hall behind a rope.

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I discovered an iPhone/iPad app called Streetmuseum Londinium (not sure if it's available on Android).  It's published by the Museum of London, so excellent credentials, and is free.

This was mentioned also on RAT and when I asked if it is available for Android also they said so far it is only available for iPhone. Maybe you should write to the musum to ask if they will publish it for Android also.

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OK, I'm back.  here's what i found:

 

The Cantebury Roman Museum:  Nice little museum.  Nothing out of the ordinary or surprising in there, worth the small charge to get in.  I looked at everything, and spent about one and three quarter hours.  Also visible in Cantebury are the foundations of a watch tower (behind glass in a sort of shop unit on the wall side of the bus station), and the well displayed remains of a hypocaust floor in the basement of Waterstones.

 

Museum of London:  As good as ever.  Free to enter, but a fiver is the suggested donation, which still makes this remarkable value for money, even if you just visit the Roman Gallery.  There's also a good section of wall on a lawned area just outside (head on the elevated walkway towards the Barbican, and go all the way down the first set of steps on the left.)  The masonary is mostly Medieval, but it's nice to try and spot which bits are Roman.  Incidentally, i didn't have time to visit it, but there's a branch of the Museum of London in the Docklands at West India Quay.  I didn't get chance to visit, but the literature suggested there may be Roman stuff there.

 

The App:  It was a nice distraction to look round using the App as a guide, though finding your way around using the Roman street plan as a guide wasn't easy.  I spoke to the staff at Museum of London, and they had no idea if there were plans to make it Android or not - it was all put together by a third party and reading between the lines, Museum of London only provided info and put their name to it.

 

The Temple of Mithras:  This is currently inaccessible, being in a huge area that was boarded off for construction.  Again, I spoke to the staff at Mus of London about this.  No-one knows at the moment how long this will be for (though looking at what's going on there, I doubt it will be this year).  They couldn't even say whether or not it would be open to the public after the construction project, though they felt it would be accessible in some form or another.

 

St Brides:  Another little find was the tesselated pavement in the crypt of St Brides church (a few metres south of Fleet Street).  Basically, they have a little museum in the crypt of this very ancient church.  At one end, there are mirrors angled so you can catch a glimspe of a small section of well-preserved pavement.  Not that exciting, but a lovely, atmospheric location.  Suggested donation

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