How the Romans built their walls

Walls were constructed from frames of oak timbers. The Romans would have prefabricated the frame in a workshop and then assembled it on site. The timbers were fitted together and consisted of base-plates laid on the ground with vertical corner posts and wall-plates fitted into the base-plates at intervals of about 2 Roman feet (60 cm). Diagonal timber braces were fastened to the timbers in order to strengthen the frame.

Once the frame was in position, it was in-filled in one of two ways:

• Mudbricks are hand-made clay bricks left out in the sun to dry and harden.

• Wattle and daub consists of branches or thin laths (wattle) woven around the timbers and covered with mud or clay (daub). This was often stamped with deep-set chevrons that allowed the plaster rendering to key to the daub.

The exterior walls were then either clad with planking or plastered and then painted.

Above left: Cross-section of a wall showing mudbrick construction
Above right: Cross-section of a wall showing wattle and daub construction

Evidence from the Poultry dig

Many of the buildings uncovered at Poultry had no foundations but were supported by large timber posts, sharpened and driven in to the ground as piles. The ground was levelled with a layer of brickearth. Then the base of the frame was set directly on to the piles and the ground. Remains of both wattle and daub and mudbrick were found, as well as the bases of some walls. The bakery had a wall surviving to a height of 30 cm and the merchant’s shop to a height of nearly 60cm.

Reconstructing High Street Londinium

The walls were prefabricated in a workshop and then assembled in the Museum, just as the originals would have been. Each of the three buildings uses a different technique.

• The bakery has mudbrick walls shown in a bad state of repair with the plaster painted a dingy white.

• The craftworker's house has mudbrick walls in the main structure, but the lean-to has wattle and daub walls. Both are roughly plastered.

• The merchant's shop has newly plastered wattle and daub walls. One section of wall is in the process of being plastered.

The following topics can also be seen in this section:

• Roofs
• Windows and Doors
• Roads and Drainage

Description of the image(s) on this page:

Top: Drawing showing the two types of wall construction

Bottom: Base of an internal wall showing the wattle and daub construction.

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Building Techniques | The Reconstructions | Background Information | High Street Londinium Main Page

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