London Gladiator Amphitheatre

London was once a Roman City and had all that Romans enjoyed within it.
The Romans arrived around AD47 and the 2 small hills of St Pauls & Leadenhall were selected as sites for a new town.
In 1988 Museum of London archaeologists discovered a Roman amphitheatre here — London’s only one ever discovered. The impressive historical landmark was first unearthed by Museum of London archaeologists in 1988, and, nearly 15 years later, the doors to the amphitheatre have been opened to the public for the first time.
The amphitheatre was first discovered when short stretches of Roman wall were observed at the bottom of four archaeological investigation trenches.
The findings were instantly famous and the site became a protected monument. An arena that was oval in shape and approximately 100 metres long by 80 metres wide. The inner perimeter walls marking the amphitheatre’s east entrance — upon which temporary seating would have been erected for
public occasions.
St Augustine in the 4^th Century describes a visit to a London Roman
amphitheatre made by his friend Alypius:
…the whole place was seething with savage enthusiasm, but he shut the doors of his eyes and forbade his soul to go out into a scene of such evil. If only he could have blocked up his ears too. For in the course of the fight some man fell; there was a great roar from the whole mass of spectators he was overcome by curiosity and opened his eyes, feeling
perfectly prepared to treat whatever he might see with scorn and to rise above it He saw the blood and he gulped down the savagery drunk with the lust of blood. He was no longer the man who had come there but was one of the crowd to which he had come.
Following dismantling and abandonment in the 4^th century the site of the amphitheatre lay derelict and empty for hundreds of years. It was only in the mid 11^th century that pressure on space in bustling Saxon and Norman London led to the reoccupation of the area.
Roman London’s Amphitheatre can be accessed via the Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, London.
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am-​5pm; Sunday noon-​4pm (admission until half an hour before closing).
Entry: £2.50 for adults, free after 3.30pm. Concessions £1. Children free and free to all on Fridays. There is no extra charge to enter the amphitheatre.