7, visit to All Hallows by the Tower and the Mithraeum.

On Saturday 3 September thanks to the good offices of Court Assistant  Christine Jarvis and the Master’s Consort a group of Water Conservators had a hugely enjoyable and illuminating guided tour of All Hallows Church, followed by lunch and then an equally wonderful (illuminated) guided tour of the recently reopened Roman Mithraeum in the Bloomberg building.



It was particularly pleasant to be able to visit All Hallows Church since it is of course the home church of our Company chaplain, the Revd. Katherine Hedderley, and we look forward to celebrating our annual Carol Service there on 15 December.

The church is the oldest in London, dating back to 675 A.D., and appears to have been built on the site of a Roman house from which remains of mosaic floors survive.  There are also arches from the early Saxon church and two very early carved crosses which were revealed when the church was bombed!

Moving forward through time we saw monuments and documents associated with several famous figures including Archbishop Laud and William Penn and more recently the Revd ‘Tubby’ Clayton founder of Toc H.  We then enjoyed an excellent lunch in the Church café.

Christine and our other guide Kate then  led us efficiently to the Bloomberg building where the remains of the famous Temple of Mithras are displayed in the basement.  (This was a replacement of our original plannede to visit Superbloom by the Tower – sadly the flowers had gone over!)

The Temple dates from the c2nd AD and was dedicated to Mithras, an Eastern deity particularly popular with the Roman army.  Discovered in the 1950s it was moved due to development and has only just returned to its original site, where it is now wonderfully well displayed with a small museum of finds and an immersive virtual reality experience suggesting what it would have been like to attend a service there.



All in all this was a thoroughly enjoyable event and everyone enjoyed the opportunity for a good chat with friends.  Many thanks to the organisers and particularly to Christine and Kate for their huge expertise. Yet another event in our active social calendar!

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