Leicester Roman Baths

Today, the only visible reminder of Leicester’s Roman past, in-situ, is the Jewry Wall. At 23m long, 9m high and 2.5m thick, it is one of the largest pieces of Roman masonry still standing in Britain. Since the medieval period, when it was commonly believed to be part of a Temple to Janus, there has been much discussion about what the Jewry Wall may have been. It was not until it was excavated in the late 1930s by the pioneering archaeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon (coincidentally in preparation for the building of a new swimming baths) that its role as part of a substantial bathing complex was demonstrated, and not the town’s forum as previously thought. Kenyon’s excavations were the first large-scale archaeological investigation of Roman Leicester and paved the way for eighty years of archaeological discoveries

Today, the only visible reminder of Leicester’s Roman past, in-situ, is the Jewry Wall. At 23m long, 9m high and 2.5m thick, it is one of the largest pieces of Roman masonry still standing in Britain. Since the medieval period, when it was commonly believed to be part of a Temple to Janus, there has been much discussion about what the Jewry Wall may have been. It was not until it was excavated in the late 1930s by the pioneering archaeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon (coincidentally in preparation for the building of a new swimming baths) that its role as part of a substantial bathing complex was demonstrated, and not the town’s forum as previously thought. Kenyon’s excavations were the first large-scale archaeological investigation of Roman Leicester and paved the way for eighty years of archaeological discoveries