Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During a series of extensive rescue excavations, ahead of development in Dover’s town centre undertaken by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit a building, a substantial Roman building consisting of 6 main rooms was uncovered lying on an east-west axis. This structure is today known as the ‘Painted House’ due to the vast quantity of painted wall plaster which was located, largely in situ, in association with it. The uncovered remains remain open to the public for viewing. Room 2, which was the best preserved of all of the rooms with its wall retaining much of its original painted plaster and surviving to a height of at least 1.5m on all four sides. (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information)

Monument Types

• WALL (Walls of room 2 of C9, Roman - 200 AD to 270 AD?)
• Wall Foundation (Foundations of structure C9, Roman - 200 AD to 330 AD?)

Full description

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(summarised from publication)

During a series of extensive rescue excavations, ahead of development in Dover’s town centre undertaken by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit a building, a substantial Roman building consisting of 6 main rooms was uncovered lying on an east-west axis. This structure is today known as the ‘Painted House’ due to the vast quantity of painted wall plaster which was located, largely in situ, in association with it. The uncovered remains remain open to the public for viewing. Room 2, which was the best preserved of all of the rooms with its wall retaining much of its original painted plaster and surviving to a height of at least 1.5m on all four sides.

The walls were all rendered both internally and externally and were constructed of coursed flints set in a hard white mortar. At a height 50cm or five courses above the wall footing, were two courses of red bricks laid horizontally, this was then followed by more coursed flint. The survival of the walls in this room was very good, all of the walls stand to at least 1.5m while the southern wall is 1.7m and the north east corner is 1.75m. These walls sat upon wall footings of flint which were 30-60cm high and slightly wider than the walls (60cm - 70cm wide whereas the walls were a maximum of 60cm). The wall footings were in turn positioned upon a set of broad foundations which consisted of flint rubble with a few fragments of tufa and chalk, 70-80cm wide and 30cm deep. All six rooms were provided with floors of pink opus signinum which overlay the hypocaust heating system beneath.

There were two openings in the walls one in the eastern wall between rooms 1 and 2 and the other in the western between rooms 2 and 3. The eastern had been blocked using chalk blocks with occasional fragments of tile and greensand, set in a white mortar at the lower and angular flints with occasional tile and greensand at the upper, surviving to a height of 1.3m. The western wall opening remained unblocked though the sill had been removed. The material used for the sill is uncertain (may have been wood or stone) but it is clear that it had been rectangular in section, 2.47m in length, 44cm wide and 13cm in depth and had been built into the structure as an integral part.

The opus siginum floor in this room, and its associated mouldings - which had here been painted red, was well preserved except for an area in the centre where it has been cut by a large Medieval pit. Immediately overlying the floor was a layer of orange-brown loam, crumbled mortar and wall plaster which represents decay and demolition rubble from the upper, demolished sections of walling. Evidence of the painted wall plaster survived in this room in situ; there is a mottled green dado delimited by a maroon band above which are large white panels each decorated differently, 15 of an original 18 of these survive substantially intact. (1)

<1> Philp, B, 1989, The Roman House with Bacchic Murals at Dover (Monograph). SKE24004.

Sources and further reading

Related records