Governor's Palace (Cannon Street)
About
A large official residence and administrative complex on the north bank of the Thames, built c. 80-100 CE, with offices, reception halls, private quarters, and an ornamental pool; identified with the site now under Cannon Street station. Archaeologist Peter Marsden excavated the complex between 1961 and 1972 and reconstructed it as three wings enclosing a courtyard, spanning roughly 130 by 100 meters from Cannon Street down to the Thames-side wharves, and interpreted it as the governor's praetorium given its scale and fine masonry. Later reassessment by other scholars argued the site was instead several separate administrative buildings rather than one unified palace. Whichever the case, this was a substantial official complex in continuous use on the Thames waterfront in 117 CE.
What happened here
The public rooms are enormous and the private ones are not. A visitor is walked through an audience hall built to make him feel small, waits with everyone else, and is admitted in order of usefulness. Behind that front, the household runs on hundreds of slaves and freedmen with narrow specialities — one for the lamps, one for the silver, one who remembers names. The kitchens are far from the dining rooms, so food arrives warm at best. Business never stops: petitions from provincial towns, judicial appeals, dispatches read aloud while the emperor is being shaved. Gardens and fountains take up as much ground as the buildings, because being able to waste that much space in a crowded city is the point.
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 →