The Roman Temple of Mithras come back to life in the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
10/11/2017.
[LON] UK 14.11.2017
metalocus, ANDRÉS TERRAIN
metalocus, ANDRÉS TERRAIN
The Roman Temple of Mithras, dating from the third century, nearly 1,800 years ago, will be revealed in a unique reconstruction on the site of its original discovery in the heart of the City of London.
London Mithraeum is a faithful reconstruction of the Temple of Mithras as it stood on this site nearly two thousand years ago. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
London Mithraeum uses light sculpture, haze and sound to bring the temple’s remains to life. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
Temple of Mithras reconstruction, image courtesy of Bloomberg. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
Six hundred of the 14,000 Roman artefacts uncovered on the Bloomberg site are displayed on the ground level of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
An interpretation space on the mezzanine level of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE explores the rituals and beliefs of the cult of Mithras. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
The London Mithraeum tauroctony depicts a scene of Mithras slaying a bull in a cave, the central icon of the cult. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
London Mithraeum is a faithful reconstruction of the Temple of Mithras as it stood on this site nearly two thousand years ago. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
London Mithraeum uses light sculpture, haze and sound to bring the temple’s remains to life. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
A team of skilled archaeologists, stone masons, conservators and designers have created the reconstruction working from original archaeological drawings, models, photographs, first-hand testimonies and newsreel footage. Photograph by James Newton. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
Temple of Mithras reconstruction. Photograph PAYE Conservation. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
Temple of Mithras dig 1954. Photograph by Robert Hitchman/MOLA. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
People queue to see the Temple of Mithras in 1954. Photograph by Robert Hitchman/MOLA. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
Bloomberg construction site during demolition. Photograph Robert Hitchman/MOLA. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
Section. Temple of Mithras reconstruction. Image courtesy of London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE
The London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE is a free new cultural destination created as part of the development of Bloomberg’s new European headquarters. It opens to the public on Tuesday, 14 November 2017.
With its own, independent entrance along Walbrook, the three-storey space will showcase the reconstructed temple seven metres below the streets of modern London, at Roman ground level. The temple is introduced on a mezzanine, directly above it, by a display of projections and interactive kiosks that invite visitors to explore the practices and symbols associated with the cult of Mithras. At street-level, Bloomberg SPACE will host a series of contemporary art commissions reflecting broadly on the history of the site, as well as a huge vitrine displaying more than 600 remarkable Roman artefacts found during recent excavations at Bloomberg.
The immersive temple reconstruction uses carefully directed lights, haze and sound to bring the temple’s remains to life, and to evoke the rituals and activities that took place within its cave-like walls. The memorable reconstruction marks a new direction for the interpretation and presentation of archaeological ruins.
With its own, independent entrance along Walbrook, the three-storey space will showcase the reconstructed temple seven metres below the streets of modern London, at Roman ground level. The temple is introduced on a mezzanine, directly above it, by a display of projections and interactive kiosks that invite visitors to explore the practices and symbols associated with the cult of Mithras. At street-level, Bloomberg SPACE will host a series of contemporary art commissions reflecting broadly on the history of the site, as well as a huge vitrine displaying more than 600 remarkable Roman artefacts found during recent excavations at Bloomberg.
The immersive temple reconstruction uses carefully directed lights, haze and sound to bring the temple’s remains to life, and to evoke the rituals and activities that took place within its cave-like walls. The memorable reconstruction marks a new direction for the interpretation and presentation of archaeological ruins.
“London has a long history as a crossroads for culture and business, and we are building on that tradition. As stewards of this ancient site and its artefacts, we have a responsibility to preserve and share its history. And as a company that is centred on communication – of data and information, news and analysis – we are thrilled to be part of a project that has provided so much new information about Roman London. We hope London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE will be enjoyed by generations to come,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder, Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg’s new European headquarters lies over the course of one of London’s lost rivers, the Walbrook. Nearly 2,000 years ago when Londinium was founded by the first Roman Londoners, this river marked the limits of their early settlement. As the town prospered and expanded, the banks of the Walbrook were reclaimed and Roman London became not only a major port of trade but a bustling economic centre in its own right. At its height, it had a population of around 30,000 people contained within the boundary of its city walls. Parts of these walls survive in an area roughly corresponding to the ‘Square Mile’ of the City of London, which remains London’s centre of commerce today.
In the 3rd century AD, nearly 200 years after the founding of Londinium, a Roman Londoner built a temple to the god Mithras next to the Walbrook. The Temple of Mithras, perhaps the most famous Roman discovery in 20th century London, was found by chance in 1954 on a bomb site where the Bloomberg building now stands. The near complete footprint of the temple emerged from the rubble, a symbol of London’s endurance. It immediately became a public sensation, attracting front-page news and queues of up to 30,000 visitors a day over a two week period.
Debate raged in government and the press about what should happen to the ruin. Eventually, it was dismantled and moved to make way for essential rebuilding. In the 1960s, it was roughly and somewhat inaccurately reconstructed 100 metres away from its original location. Bloomberg acquired the site in 2010 and committed to reinstating a more faithful, publicly accessible reconstruction of the temple.
A team of skilled archaeologists, stone masons, conservators and designers have created the reconstruction working from original archaeological drawings, models, photographs, first-hand testimonies and newsreel footage. The project has taken ten years to complete and has been funded and created by Bloomberg, working closely with the City of London and a team of conservation specialists, in consultation with the expert team at MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology). The immersive display within the temple was created by an interdisciplinary team led by internationally-recognised design firm Local Projects.
More information
Architects
Foster + Partners
London Mitrhreaum Bloomberg SPACE Contributors
Consulting Curator – Nancy Rosen. Archaeological Consultant – MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology). Lead Designer, London Mithraeum – Jake Barton, Local Projects. Exhibition Architect, London Mithraeum – Wendy Joseph, Studio Joseph. Artist Consultant, London Mithraeum – Matthew Schreiber. Stone Masonry – PAYE Conservation. Local Authority advice – Kathryn Stubbs, Department of the Built Environment, City of London. Commissioned Artist, Bloomberg SPACE – Isabel Nolan
Dates
Opening times.- Tuesday – Saturday.- 10-6pm. Sundays/ bank holidays 12-5pm. First Thursdays.- 6-8pm. Pre-booked private groups by request.
Venue
London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE. 12 Walbrook. London, EC4N 8AA, UK
NORMAN FOSTER
Norman Foster is considered by many to be the most prominent architect in Britain. He won the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes Prize.
Lord Foster rebuilt the Reichstag as a new German Parliament in Berlin and designed a contemporary Great Court for the British Museum. He linked St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern with the Millennium Bridge, a steel footbridge across the Thames. He designed the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.
He was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Among his firm’s many other projects are London’s City Hall, the Bilbao Metro in Spain, the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London and the renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
In the 1970s, Lord Foster was one of the most visible practitioners of a high-tech architecture that fetishized machine culture. His triumphant 1986 Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building, conceived as a kit-of-parts plugged into a towering steel frame, was capitalism's answer to the populist Pompidou Center in Paris.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, The Times’s architecture critic, has written that although Lord Foster’s work has become sleeker and more predictable in recent years, his forms are always driven by an internal structural logic, and they treat their surroundings with a refreshing bluntness.
Awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts 2009.
METALOCUS > 05.2017
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