Guildhall & Roman Amphitheatre

The Guildhall Roman Amphitheatre in London is a 1st-century gladiator arena preserved six metres below Guildhall Yard, featuring intact stone walls discovered unexpectedly in 1988. Built around 70 AD, the 100-metre-long stadium once seated 7,000 spectators for gladiator fights and wild animal contests. Forgotten for centuries, the site was uncovered during gallery reconstruction and opened as a national monument in 2002.

London Β· from the walk β€œLondon's Big Kid Adventure” Β· Generated

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Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, London EC2V 5AE

When was the Guildhall Roman Amphitheatre in London discovered?

Okay, here's a secret that most people walking through London have absolutely NO idea about. Right beneath your feet... there is a Real Roman gladiator arena. Seriously!......... Almost two thousand years ago, around seventy AD, the Romans built a massive wooden amphitheatre right here. Can you guess how big it was? It was one hundred metres long, eighty-five metres wide, and large enough to seat seven Thousand people! That's like filling a huge concert hall... except the entertainment was way more intense.......... People flocked here to watch gladiator contests, animal fighting, boxing, athletics, and even music and religious events. There was even a small room on the east side of the arena where there may have been a trapdoor... so wild animals like wolves or bears could be released straight into the arena! Imagine sitting in the front row for That.......... The amphitheatre was built at a time when London was being rebuilt bigger and better after a warrior queen named Boudica practically destroyed the city ten years before. So the Romans thought... you know what this town needs? A giant stadium!......... Now here's the really cool detective story. After the Romans left in the early fifth century, the amphitheatre lay forgotten for Hundreds of years. Little by little, people stole its stones for other building projects. Then medieval houses were built on top. Then the Guild-hall. And everyone just... forgot it was there.......... For centuries, archaeologists Knew London must have had an amphitheatre, but they couldn't find it anywhere. What made it especially tricky was that this amphitheatre was built Inside the old Roman city walls, while most ancient amphitheatres were located on the outside. Nobody thought to look here!......... Then in nineteen eighty-eight... builders were getting ready to rebuild the art gallery above us, which had been destroyed by German bombs during the Blitz. Against all expectations, a section of Roman stone wall appeared during the dig, amazing the archaeologists. They went on to find more sections of wall and parts of a wooden drainage system.......... The remains were immediately declared a national monument and could not be moved. So the builders had a real problem... they had to build an entire art gallery Around these ancient ruins! In two thousand and two, the doors to the amphitheatre finally opened for the first time in nearly two thousand years.......... Now look down at the ground in Guild-hall Yard. Can you spot it? The original shape of the outer wall is marked by a circle of black paving stones. You're standing right inside what used to be a Gladiator arena. And if you go inside the gallery β€” it's totally free β€” you can see the original walls, the drainage system, and even the sand that was once used to soak up the blood from wounded gladiators.......... Those ruins are sitting six metres below your feet... right now.

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