Shaping the city (c. AD 52–60)

Abstract

This chapter describes how London was rebuilt in a major phase of urban redesign likely to date c. AD 52, perhaps when an earlier supply-base was converted into a city. This involved a significant degree of cadastral reform. These works were probably initiated by the governor Didius Gallus. Busy construction programmes of the 50s involved the introduction of a new street grid, London’s first waterfront revetments, warehouses around the forum, and new bathhouses on the borders of town. A sacred precinct may also have been established around natural springs on a hillside overlooking the town. London’s first suburbs were established, and included workshops built and used following pre-Roman technologies. The contrast presented by these unusual and peripheral sites is used to argue the marginal status of British communities within the Roman city. A further programme of urban expansion dating c. AD 60 is also described.