In the first chapter I discuss the physical aspects of Dorn’s alchemic laboratory deep below Edmond Heydon’s smithy, in what used to be a temple to the Persian god Mithras. It is just north of the Chaucer home on Thames Street. The temple was a real thing, and it was an enormous stroke of luck to find it right where I needed some sort of a sacred entity to be. It was built in 240 CE in Londinium by Romans who, at the time, built over 100 temples to Mithras across Europe. The London temple was situated on the west bank of the Walbrook, a stream running from the old city wall near Moorfields to the Thames, (then known as the Tamese). Walbrook is one of the earliest place names in London. Anglo-Saxon Londoners called the stream the “Wylrithe” or “Walebroc,” probably meaning “the stream of the Britons,” or “stream by the [city] wall.” Archaeological evidence indicates that in medieval times the Walbrook was more a ditch than a river and was not navigable for boats, unlike the River Fleet a little further west.
Londinium Mithraeum circa 240 CE
Interior – Londinium Mithraeum
Mithraeum in Rome
It had Roman columns, a roundel of Mithras wrestling a bull, and many objects relating to the ceremonies held within, during which Roman soldiers sought valor and virility in shower-baths of hot blood from slaughtered bulls. After the recall of the legions to Rome in 410 A.D., and over the course of many centuries, new buildings were erected and destroyed, and layers and layers of rubble built up to become the ground level that is London today—about 23 feet higher than it had been in the year 240.
In my story, in about 1290, while digging the crypt for the original St. Stephen Church, monks found relics of the Mithras temple, including the roundel. They believed that erecting a Christian church over pagan remains would hallow the heathen site, showing the dominance of Christianity over paganism. With only the crypt and the walls of the church built, it suffered a fire, and consequently, the monks built a larger church next to it. The monks allow the smith to build his smithy in the burnt-out remains of the old church, and Dorn converts the crypt to his laboratorium.
The original St. Stephen Church was built on the west side of the Walbrook stream, which would be today’s Walbrook Street. It was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666, and about a decade later a new church was built, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which stands across from the headquarters for Bloomberg L.P. The building occupies the triangle of land bordered by Queen Victoria Street, Walbrook Street, and Cannon Street.
Bloomberg location shown on Medieval map
Between September 1940 and May 1941 the campaign of bombing British cities, called the Blitz, totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair buildings across a third of the City of London. The area around St Paul’s Cathedral was hit several times. A particularly severe raid on the night of 10 May 1941 destroyed almost all the buildings around what is now the Bloomberg site.
The Blitz was devastating for the people of London, and many historic buildings were lost. However, it was recognized that the cleared bomb sites could provide an opportunity to record some of the buried archaeological remains on which the modern city is built. A team of archaeologists was assembled in 1946, called the Roman and Mediaeval London Excavation Council, led by William F Grimes, Director of the London Museum (one of the forerunners of the Museum of London), and another eminent archaeologist, Audrey Williams. Between 1946 and 1961 they examined sites across central London, retrieving valuable information on London’s origins.
The archaeologists knew the Bloomberg site lay over the Walbrook stream and that well-preserved organic remains had been seen before in the black, wet soils filling the Walbrook valley. In 1952 they opened several trenches across the Walbrook. The locations chosen were influenced by where bomb rubble had been cleared. In most trenches they found what they expected to see—evidence of the reclamation and management of the banks of the Walbrook during the first centuries of Roman London—but, in one trench they uncovered the substantial remains of a Roman stone building with an intriguing curved wall. It was not possible to explore further until more of the bomb rubble had been cleared.
The team returned in 1954 and worked through that summer, just before major construction work started for Bucklersbury House, one of the largest post-war developments in the city. The fragment of curved wall was shown to extend, and what was revealed was almost the complete floor plan of a large rectangular Roman building, aligned east-west, with a semicircular space or apse at the west end. The archaeologists speculated as to what it could be—a temple or perhaps even an early church. By the last day of planned excavation, Saturday 18 September 1954, there was no clear indication of who this possible temple could be dedicated to. But later that day, one of the workmen in the archaeological team made the incredible discovery of a sculpted head. The archaeologists recognized it as the Roman god Mithras, identifiable from his characteristic cap* and upwards gaze. At almost the last moment of the excavation, the key piece of information was there: the building could be a temple to Mithras. This chance discovery became one of the most significant events in British archaeological history.
London Excavation of Mithraeum
Excavation for Bloomberg European HQ, London
Bloomberg site in relation to early London
All artifacts were moved and assembled in a museum not far away. In 2017, Michael Bloomberg opened Bloomberg London, the European headquarters for Bloomberg L.P. The building occupies the very same triangle of land where the original Mithraic temple was located. Bloomberg built a museum under the new headquarters, 23 feet below street level, then moved all artifacts to the original site, underneath his new building, where it can be seen today.
Street entrance to the London Mithraeum:
UPDATE: My book is now in the collection of the London Mithraeum!
*See the Notre Dame post about the Phrygian cap.
Click to see a video of the Making of the London Mithraeum.
(All images from the Bloomberg site)