The sun was shining after the recent rain, the city of London was glistening as we went on a photo walk around Londinium the old name for London. Going back in time with the Romans and our last centurion tour guide Markus.
The walk was organised by the London History Group & London Photo walk. The
London History Group have collated the historical sites hidden around London.
The walk started at the London museum which is just north of St Pauls. I had never been to the museum before. It is quite hidden away from the street as you have to go up a level to find it.
Next to the museum was the first bit of Roman wall dating from 120AD. The place wasn’t even a town back then it was a settlement with around 1000 people known as a Roman Fort. The walls were the boundaries of the eventual town and were built to keep out the invaders.
The walls are a mixture of different periods with the neat stones of the Romans at the base with the Saxon stone built on top.
Next we carried on to the area near the Barbican centre with the continuation of bits of the wall. The walk took around 4 hours as we’re also taking photographs.
The rest of the walk went around the areas of the city of London amongst the sites were the old Gothic churches of the Viking and Roman period. Some of the buildings have long gone and are now beneath the current buildings of the city.
Another place we visited is the Guildhall where the first Roman ampitheatre was first built in AD70 made out of wood.
The Guildhall art gallery has the remains of the amphitheatre that used to sit in the Guildhall square.
Not many people visit the basement of the art gallery where the above photo was taken showing the ruins and a representation of what the theatre would have looked like back in the time. The amphitheatre was upgraded in AD200 adding the stone parts which can be seen today. It was then abandoned in AD400 before the end of Roman rule.
One of the sites around London bridge was the remains of the first bridge across London. There is even remains of the wood which is hidden away off the road. The picture below shows the wood (Wharf piling) plus some of the excavated stones of the bridge.
We continued onto Coopers Row where the wall was built between 190 and 225AD.
Another of the sites was the tower of London which has a statue of Julius Ceaser.
The walk ended at the All Hallows church next to the tower. In the crypt are old relics of the Roman era. Another place that I frequently pass by but had never been in.
More of my photographs can be found on Flickr the link is below. Many thanks to Markus our guide for the informative walk and his knowledge of the Roman history around Londinium.
You can find out more about his group here – https://www.londonhistorygroup.com where there is more information about the hidden gems around London including gardens, Viking burial grounds etc.
If you are interested in going on some interesting photo walks around London be sure to join the Facebook photo page of the London Photowalk.
Many thanks for reading, may see you on a walk some time soon. 🙂
Useful links
Flickr for further Photographs – https://www.flickr.com/alalchan
London History Group – https://www.londonhistorygroup.com/
London Photowalk –
httpss://www.facebook.com/groups/londonphotowalk/
