Jewry Wall

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The wall

The ruins of the baths

The Jewry Wall in Leicester, England is the remaining wall of the public baths of Roman Leicester along with foundations of the baths, which are laid out in front of the wall. It is quite large and impressive.

The wall is nearly 2000 years old, and is a rare example of Roman walling. It is the second largest piece of surviving civil Roman building in Britain (the largest being the 'great work' at Wroxeter, also part of a municipal baths complex). The Jewry Wall would have been the wall separating the gymnasium from the cold room.

The name of the wall does not relate to Leicester's Jewish community, which was expelled from the city in mediaeval times. It is thought most likely that the name bears some relation to the 24 jurats of Saxon Leicester, the senior members of the Corporation of Leicester, who were said to meet in the town churchyard - possibly that of St. Nicholas, just next to the baths and largely made out of Roman building rubble, or in the area between it and the back of the wall.

The remains of the baths were excavated in the 1930s by Dame Kathleen Kenyon and date from approximately 160 AD. The wall and baths are adjoined by the Jewry Wall Museum, which contains excellent local examples of Roman mosaics and wall plaster.