The Temple of Mithras, Walbrook is a Roman temple whose ruins were discovered in Walbrook, a street in the City of London, during rebuilding work in 1954.
It is perhaps the most famous of all twentieth-century Roman discoveries in the City of London.
The Roman temple, when it was originally built, would have stood on the east bank of the now covered-over River Walbrook, a key freshwater source in Roman Londinium. Nearby, in its former streambed, a small square hammered lead sheet was found, on which an enemy of someone named Martia Martina had inscribed her name backwards and thrown the token into the stream, in a traditional Celtic way of reaching the gods that has preserved metal tokens in rivers throughout Celtic Europe, from the swords at La Tène to Roman times.
Due to the necessity of building over the site, the whole site was uprooted and moved down the road to Temple Court, Queen Victoria Street, London EC4, where the remains of the temple foundations have been reassembled for display to the public.
The original Mithraeum was built partly underground, recalling the cave of Mithras where the Mithraic epiphany took place.
The temple foundations are very close to other important sites in the city of London including the historic London Stone, the Bank of England and London Wall.
It was intended that in 2009 the Temple would be relocated to its original location beside the ancient Walbrook River, as part of the demolition of Bucklersbury House, and the creation of the new Walbrook Square development, designed by Foster and Partners. However, redesigns and disputes between freeholders Legal and General and Metrovacesa, who had agreed to buy the project, resulted in the Walbrook Square project being put on hold.
As of May 2010, the Mithraeum remained in situ at Temple Court, though in the same month there was talk of reviving the Walbrook Square project. The Walbrook Square project has since been purchased by Bloomberg which has announced intent to restore the Mithraeum to its original site.
