Hidden behind the world famous Borough Market is one of London’s most historic quarters. The streets South of London Bridge team with 2,000 years of history. Borough Market is an excellent place to start to explore this history.

The Romans landed on the Kent coast in the 1st century AD. They then built some roads, as Romans always did: Watling Street, and Staines Street. These met at the bottom of Borough High Street, which was a raised bit of land across boggy marshes. This led to the Roma...

One of the highest points near to the Thames is Cox’s Mount in Maryon Park, Charlton in South-East London. Here you can reach almost 100 feet above sea level. Yes, almost 100 feet! The views of the Thames are impressive, with the Dome and North Greenwich to the West, and beyond them Greenwich itself. The Thames Barrier is immediately to the North, and a little to the  East across the river is the Tate and Lyle factory at Silvertown. 

Go at the right time and you have the place to yourself, a...

Dating the precise collapse of Roman rule in London is hard. However, a lack of archaeological finds for the fifth century suggests that the Roman city was largely empty by about 450. The Anglo-Saxons developed a new port in the late seventh century, but that was upstream from the old settlement at what is now Aldwych.

It used to be thought that an imperial rescript (a set of answers to queries) of the Emperor Honorius dated to 410 was a reply to an appeal from the Britons for help, in which h...

In virus-free times you can visit three Roman sites within the City: the Amphitheatre underneath Guildhall Art Gallery, the baths on Lower Thames Street, and the Mithraeum in the Bloomberg Building. Each is definitely worth a visit, and the three are very different, not only in terms of the buildings’ original purpose, but also as visitor experiences.

The most high-tec is the Mithraeum. The construction of Bloomberg’s new European headquarters allowed for an extensive archaeological dig an...