Colchester’s Roman circus site and centre opened to visitors

Today (24th August), the Trust had a really enjoyable and successful day at Roman Circus House with the opening of the Roman circus site, circus centre and cafe to visitors. The site and centre are works in progress but developing rapidly, while our new cafe is fully operational. (New Trust member of staff Gemma is our cafe manager.) We began the day by inviting our donors, contributors, volunteers and Friends of the Trust to come and have a look round the building and see what we are doing with the site and the centre, and to thank them for all their vital support. We had refreshments from the cafe, a speech by Trust director Philip Crummy about our programme of work on the site and in the centre, the unveiling of the donors’ ‘roll of honour’ plaque by Trust volunteer Neil Staff, and a guided tour of our current excavation on the foundations of part of the circus.

Then we opened the circus site and centre to visitors. We look forward to welcoming visitors to the circus, every day except Sunday, 10.00am till 4.00pm. Entry is free. This is, of course, the site of the only known Roman circus in Britain, and this is the only Roman circus centre in Britain!

Thanks to everyone for coming and, as always, a huge thank you to all our supporters and all our dedicated Trust volunteers.

The images show our guests gathering in the large ground-floor room at Roman Circus House; Neil Staff unveiling the plaque; and the guided tour of the excavation, on the opening day today. (The lines of red and white tape on the site define the outer wall of the circus cavea.)

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