London's Roman Amphitheatre
About
Built soon after the city's founding, its timber entrance posts felled by tree-ring dating to 74 or 75 CE. Crowds packed its earthwork banks for gladiator fights and animal baiting for decades before anyone touched it again. Workers rebuilding the Guildhall Art Gallery in 1988 broke straight into its buried arena wall by accident, and its remains now sit on public view in the gallery's basement. In 117 CE it was still the original wooden arena — the stone rebuild was a few years off.
What happened here
Doors open early and the programme runs all day. Morning is animal hunts, staged with scenery hauled up through trapdoors from the corridors below. Midday is executions, and it is the hour when the seats thin out and people go for lunch. The afternoon is the gladiators, matched by type and record like boxers, refereed, and stopped when a man raises a finger. Most fights are not to the death — a trained fighter is expensive — but a decision can go the other way and the crowd is consulted. Seating is strictly by rank: officials at the front, women at the top. Awnings are worked by sailors detailed for the job. Sand is spread thick and replaced between shows, and the whole building smells of it.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →