Public Buildings & Works

The principal group of public buildings at the centre of the Roman town - the basilica and forum - has been partially excavated and the overall layout of this area is established in outline. Adjacent were the town baths, which have been less extensively explored.

The corporate life of the city from at least the late 12th century centred on the Guildhall in High Street, which served as the place where the ruling body of the city - the Chamber - met, where the city entertained, kept its records and administered justice. The city seal is a remarkable survival of its authority.

City projects of the later Middle Ages, apart from the maintenance of the city walls, included the provision of a water supply and the operation of the city’s corn mills. The fostering and regulation of the city’s craftspeople and trade was another traditional city duty. This included, from Elizabeth’s reign onwards, the heavy expenses of the development of the canal and quay, including the Custom House and Quay House, and the maintenance of the city staff to collect local customs. The city’s regulation of the major cloth trade is illustrated both by the sealing of cloths and by the stamping of bales as they left the quayside.

In the Georgian period the range of major city projects grew, notably with bridge- and road-building and the construction of new covered market buildings. Public health had not been a matter to which the old Chamber had devoted much attention, but the disaster of the cholera of the 1830s finally changed this.

Victorian concerns with public education, mental health and the police are illustrated in the collections.