Remains--pavements, etc.--are to be seen in abundance in the Guildhall Museum.
When the old General Post Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand was demolished a large series of Roman rubbish pits was disclosed. The lowest portions of 120 of these were carefully excavated. The "finds" included a few whole pots and many thousands of fragments of Samian and coarse pottery, besides building materials, whetstones, beads, knives, coins, and other small articles. It has been possible to assign dates to most of the holes--between A.D. 50 and 200. By the association in the same hole of datable with undatable pottery, light has been thrown upon many types of the latter.
Not long ago, while the buildings 3-6 King William Street were being demolished, another series of five large Roman pits was uncovered. From the fragments obtained therefrom nine Samian vessels of the first century have been pieced together, and are now in the Guildhall Museum. These include a decorated vessel, finer than any previously found in London, and two specimens of a shape unknown hitherto in England. A lamp, two coins, and other objects of pottery and bronze were also obtained from this source.[7]
[Footnote 7: Besant's _London_ and his _Westminster_ convey a fascinating account of what was a labour of love on the part of the author to compile. All sorts of unexpected pleasures await the wanderer in London's highways and byeways. One of these may be noticed in respect of the Roman bath in the Strand. Turning down Strand Lane (a narrow passage between King's College and Surrey Street), a few yards bring one to the baths. The lane itself is as ancient as anything in London, inasmuch as it must have been in very early times a path by the side of the stream fed by the bath spring, and perhaps by the Holy Well, which afterwards gave its name to the notorious Holywell Street, this stream finally flowing into the Thames.]
It is a moot point whether the Saxon migration along the Thames waterway was checked by the presence of London, which remained a city stronghold since Roman times, but it is evident that a gap was made in the history of the city just after the departure of the Romans, and the theory of continuous occupation can hardly be maintained in face of the fact that the mediæval City streets in no case follow the Roman roads traces of which lie beneath the mediæval houses.