TR 1481857841. Sited from plan auth 1. The exact location of the Canterbury forum and basilica is unknown, but a number of Roman features very probably connected with public buildings have been recorded in the area between Stour Street and White Horse Lane in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and it seems very likely that the forum lay in this vicinity. A mosaic measuring 4ft by 8ft was found in 1758 3ft below the surface while making a cellar for a house which is now part of the County Hotel. James Pilbrow, during his observation of drainage trenches in 1867-68 noted three walls crossing the High Street at right angles near the County Hotel. A fourth wall was found in front of 35 High Street, just north-east of the former Fleur-de-Lis Hotel and this extended as far as White Horse Lane and some distance up it. In 1949 Roman gravel was exposed at the junction of Stour Street and High Street and again in 1951 and 1953 during enlargement of the County Hotel Cellars. The gravel would seem to be too extensive to be interpreted as street and may have formed part of the forum courtyard. The Fleur-de-Lis was demolished in 1958 and the western part of the yard is now covered by the County Hotel extension. There was much disturbance but remains of walls and part of a substantially bedded, very worn tessellated pavement were found together with much Roman building debris which included wall-veneers of various marbles. This seemed to confirm the presence of a public building in this area. Excavations took place in 1953 at the County Hotel in 1955 in Fleur-de-Lis yard. Despite these excavations the function of the Roman building and indeed its date are not clear. The hearth in trench 3 at Fleur-de-Lis yard, may perhaps indicate a house or a shop, but this may belong to another building. The presence of marble fragments, which included thin wall-veneers in red porphyry from Egypt, Giallo Antico from Algeria or Numidia and Carrara marble from Italy makes it certain that there was a public building somewhere here. The site lies over 400ft (122m) north-north-west of the known area of the public baths in St Margaret's Street and is unlikely to have formed part of that establishment. Whether it formed part of the forum is impossible to decide in view of the small area examined and of the narrowness of the wall found. This wall, however, was only an internal one, and certainly the richness of the marble veneers suggests a public function. (1) The Roman Basilica according to Professor Frere, may be situated south of High Street, and the range of rooms discovered in Fleur- de-Lis yard may have been part of a range of rooms along the outside of the Basilica as at London or Verulanium. The possibility still exists that they may be part of a separate building. (2)

<1> The Arch of Cant 8 1987 93-98 plan (SS Frere P Bennett J Rady and S Stow) (OS Card Reference). SKE49990.

<2> Arch Cant 100 1984 54 (P Bennett) (OS Card Reference). SKE34547.