The Roman Bathhouse @ Billingsgate

As part of the Festival of British Archaelogy, University College London staff and students were on hand today in the basement of 101 Lower Thames Street to show visitors around the remains of the Billingsgate Bathhouse.

Constructed between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the bathhouse is the only remaining example from the five such establishments which are believed to have served London until the end of the Roman occupation in the fifth century. Because of its relatively modest size, the Billingsgate Bathhouse would have been part of a large private home or an inn – the largest in London proper was at Huggin Hill, although two more are now known to have existed in Southwark, with one potentially being even larger than the Huggin Hill example.

The Billingsgate Bathhouse contained a large Frigidarium (cold room) and a smaller Tepidarium (warm room) and Caldarium (hot room) with the latter being heated so well that visitors had to wear thick wooden sandals so as not to scorch their feet. The latest excavations took place when the previous building on Lower Thames Street, the Corn Exchange was demolished in the late 1960s – these revealed most of the structure’s foundations, including the under-floor hypocaust and the furnace which was attached to the side of the building and supplied the hot air.

The Billingsgate Bathhouse is very occasionally open to the public, so to find out the next dates on which this fascinating site will be open keep an eye on the website here.