The so-called Roman governor's palace stood on the north bank of the Thames in Londinium, beneath what is now Cannon Street railway station. Constructed in the late 1st century AD, probably under the Flavians, it was a monumental complex of state rooms, courtyards, an ornamental pool and terraced gardens covering at least 1.4 hectares, traditionally interpreted as the residence and administrative seat of the provincial governor (procurator or legatus) of Britannia.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As the likely praetorium of the province, it represented the apex of imperial authority in Britain and underlined Londinium's role as the provincial capital from the Flavian period onwards. Its scale and architectural ambition rivalled governors' residences in other major provincial capitals such as Cologne and Aquincum.
Excavations by Peter Marsden in the 1960s during redevelopment around Bush Lane and Cannon Street revealed massive masonry foundations, hypocausts, mosaic fragments, a large ornamental pool roughly 4 by 14 metres, and terraced ranges descending towards the river. The identification as a governor's palace remains debated, with some scholars now suggesting it may instead have been a public building, mansio, or part of a larger civic complex.
The so-called Roman governor's palace stood on the north bank of the Thames in Londinium, beneath what is now Cannon Street railway station. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman governor's palace (site of) is classified as a Roman site — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including The Roman riverside wall and wharves at Riverbank House (0.1 km), London Mithraeum (0.2 km), Londinium/Augusta (0.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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