A Hidden Walk Across Roman Londinium

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Guys, most people think Roman London disappeared nearly 2,000 years ago. But weirdly, you can still walk through some of it today. Hidden beneath offices, churches, and busy streets, fragments of Londinium are they're quietly just surviving there. And the best bit of all is you can just walk through, walk along to them, and they're free of charge to see.

[00:00:24]Hello, I'm Jason, and this is London Layers, where I explore the hidden corners, forgotten stories of the one fragment at a time. And today, we're going to explore just how much of Roman Londinium survives in modern London. If you know the history of London, it's kind of crazy because of the rate of development and pace of change uh becoming the biggest city in the world until the 1920s, it's amazing that any of Roman Londinium survives in my view.

[00:00:53]Um but there's more than you'd think, so let's get looking. So, let's start right here because standing just right next to Tower Hill uh is a part of Roman London that's been here for nearly 2,000 years.

[00:01:04]This is the Roman Wall, and it was built in the 2nd century AD um at the time when Londinium would have been the most important part of Roman Britain. It actually stretches right round what was the old Roman city, 2 mi worth of wall uh starting here on the east side at Tower Hill, but going all the way round to Blackfriars at the west side. And weirdly, the boundary of Londinium is similar to the way we define the City of London, the square mile uh financial City of London today. But before we talk more about the wall and see what else was left, there's something close by that which gives us more of an idea of what Roman London was really like. So, let's go and take a little look at that.

[00:01:48]Now, right beside the Tower of London stands one of the oldest churches in the old city, All Hallows by the Tower, founded all the way back in AD 675. And while sadly very little of that church actually survives above ground after suffering both, I think in the Great Fire and the Blitz, underground is a completely different story. Because hidden down this wonderfully atmospheric staircase lines an ancient crypt that almost feels like stepping through layers of London itself. Amazingly, one of the things you can still see is part of the floor from an old Roman house along with Roman artifacts found in the area. Then look at this. I think this is pretty cool. There's an old model of Roman Londinium created in the early 20th century. It gives us a special sense of what the city might have looked like at its height. You can clearly see the wall, which is perhaps a defensive wall, also maybe used for trade. These were kind of standard for any Roman settlement though. And it wraps round the city as we talked about, punctuated by seven main gates. Many of whose names still survive in London, starting with Aldgate in the east and going all the way round west to Ludgate. And what I love is that this model almost becomes a map for what we're doing today. Because as we explore Roman London, we're going to see just how much evidence of this lost city still survives in modern London. I always think that's really cool going down there. Always love it.

[00:03:19]And it made me think actually probably the best place next to visit is part of Roman London that still exists, which dates back further. We're right here near Monument, and if you just slip down here, you get to something pretty special. In fact, most people just walk straight past without realizing what's here. This is St. Magnus the Martyr Church, and this archway here was the entrance to the old London Bridge, slightly to the east of the London Bridge we know today. Inside the church, you can actually see a model of the bridge in its heyday during the medieval period. But come and have a look at this. Through here, you'll actually see a piece of the Roman wall. This was at the base of the first ever crossing, or at least during the first century. Could have been the second crossing around AD 75. We obviously saw this when we were looking at the model a little earlier, and it's amazing to think even though London Bridge now is a little bit to the west of this point, that the bridge has been there in some form for 2,000 years nearly.

[00:04:29]>> Now that's really, really cool to see, and I'm glad we took a bit of a detour to see it. But it does mean that we're going to go back now to All Hallows by the Tower, and the Tower of London, and that first bit of Roman wall we found on the east side, just to see what else is there, and what more of the wall we can find goes around the perimeter of the old city.

[00:04:48]Okay, I've just turned the corner from where we were originally, just round near the Tower of London, and the first piece of Roman wall we were able to find. If you come along here, this is really cool, very tucked away, just along Hamnet Street, hidden along here. And a bit further north than the first bit of Roman wall, you will find this.

[00:05:13]Now what's particularly cool is that you can actually walk through this little stretch of the wall, which is a really sort of fun experience to be able to do.

[00:05:24]And it helps us get a bit more of a closer look at what we're actually looking at as well.

[00:05:31]Now an important thing to note when we're looking at this wall is that actually it was built on over the centuries. So a large proportion of the higher level actually dates to the medieval period, when reinforcements were needed, and a much higher wall was kind of important for London to have. The original Roman wall is at the bottom. You can spot this quite clearly because it has the Kensish ragstone and those red tiles going across for extra strength. Now, the original wall I think was only built to around 6 to 8 ft above ground level. So, not that high by today's standards, but I think it would have been pretty imposing back then.

[00:06:08]Now, for a long time, you couldn't see too much of the wall as you walk northwards, but now only 5 minutes away, there's a bit of a new discovery and this is a really special one. So, let's go and have a look. Now, we're at Vine Street and this was only discovered during excavations in 1979 and only very recently has it become a place that the public can come and visit for free. Here we have not only a strong bit of wall and some Roman artifacts found around it. We also have the remains of a bastion. This was essentially a lookout tower and an extra layer of protection. Most likely added to the wall around the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century. What's really, really cool is where this outer wall of the bastion, but if you also look, you can see the base of the Roman wall. This is the only bit of the wall that you can see where you're actually at the bottom. So, yeah, that's a really fun one. I've only been once before cuz it's fairly new and you just walk in.

[00:07:08]I had a little mooch around there.

[00:07:10]Now, as we move northwards, sadly we don't get to see any more of the Roman wall. However, there are so many of what was here.

[00:07:18]The wall was actually punctuated with these gates that we looked at a little earlier. Two of them are overhead.

[00:07:23]You've got Old Gate and then you've also got Bishopsgate. Bishopsgate in particular is quite interesting because on the site of the wonderful Leadenhall Market, you had the absolute centerpiece of Roman Londinium, the forum and the basilica. So, for the final bits of the wall that we can see, we're actually going to turn west onto the aptly named London Wall, which roughly follows the track of the wall this road. It's going to lead us to some gems. Now, what I love is London is still one of the busiest cities of the world. It's not a museum. It's very active and functioning. So, the fact we still have these pieces of history, I think is absolutely fantastic. You've got all these tall buildings around it, but just look at the contrast.

[00:08:06]Here at the wonderful Salters Garden, you can see a really, really stunning piece of the old wall.

[00:08:14]Now, this isn't quite as well preserved.

[00:08:16]The layers are a little less clear, but you can just see that Kentish ragstone and those tiles right at the Now, as cool as this is, I've saved the last little bits of wall until the end.

[00:08:27]Come with me. If you go through this doorway and then you walk down these stairs going through a couple of doors on your way, you eventually get to the Roman Wall Car Park. Now, this is where things get really strange because as you walk through this innocuous-looking car park and you get to bay 52, you see something very, very different to a bay.

[00:08:54]This is definitely my favorite bit of Roman Wall. I just look how well preserved it is. I know I've been going on and on about the the Kentish ragstone and those red tiles, but they're so nicely preserved. They're really, really clean.

[00:09:07]And you can just see how well built this wall originally was.

[00:09:19]And we're not finished just yet. In fact, round the corner, we've got something pretty special. And the last thing that we're going to see, which is above ground. Got the Barbican there as well, which is very cool. So, let's go and check that one out.

[00:09:32]Okay, this is a really, really cool one, guys. We're on Noble Street and right behind me is something very, very special. The wall itself actually isn't Roman. We can't see any of the Roman wall here. It's all medieval. However, we can see the foundations of a Roman fort, an outpost that was used. And this basically enabled soldiers to kind of practice and make sure they were all ready for warfare or whatever it may be.

[00:09:58]Okay, we're really stepping things up now and moving well within the city boundary. Um this place wasn't even known about or its whereabouts wasn't known about until around 40 or 50 years ago.

[00:10:12]Uh and this is where we need to be, the stunning medieval Guildhall. Um the place is beneath our feet, but we are going to look to our right.

[00:10:22]>> If you go through the doors at the Guildhall Art Gallery, you find yourself in the middle of Roman London. I basically just went down some stairs and then facing you is the Roman amphitheater of Londinium.

[00:10:36]Archaeologists for so long didn't know where it was, but in the 1980s finally found this beneath the Guildhall and slowly realized they'd found the lost amphitheater. It dates back to AD 70, although it was rebuilt so most likely after AD 120.

[00:10:56]Around 6 to 7,000 people could fit in here and it would have been for gladiatorial combat, animal fights, military displays, all those kinds of things. You can really get a sense for it. The detail that I really particularly love is this drainage system that you can see and all the things that would have come through there as those events took place.

[00:11:19]I never get bored of coming here. It's absolutely fantastic area and really, really cool to see. But it's only going to get better actually and I would argue that the place we're going to go to next is somewhere that most people have never heard of when I ask them about it and it's right there in plain sight. Because just seconds from Bank Station, you can find this. This is the Temple of Mithras, originally discovered in 1954 during post-war rebuilding works. It would have been used nearly 2,000 years ago by followers of this cult, popular particularly with soldiers, merchants, officials, etc. Disappointingly, it was moved from its original location, but has painstakingly been reconstructed by archaeologists as as close as it possibly could to where it originally stood, now hidden beneath the Bloomberg building itself. There were loads of objects found including sandals, coins, tools, and perhaps most incredibly, some of Britain's earliest handwritten documents, wooden tablets used to record trade deals, etc. When you go and see the temple, it is incredibly immersive and honestly, there's still something wonderfully mysterious about Mithras.

[00:12:29]Partly because its followers rarely wrote down what they believed. So, I mean, even today historians are trying to piece together exactly what happened down here beneath Roman London.

[00:12:39]Anyway, this isn't an exhaustive list of everything Roman London, but these are some of the best things that you can see just by walking around the city and they're just all there in plain sight.

[00:12:50]Hopefully, if you enjoyed this, do all that normal stuff, subscribe and like, etc. And hopefully see you on another walk next time.