Roman Wharf Timber

The lowdown

Tucked into a corner near the old approach to London Bridge sits something astonishing and easy to miss, a length of waterlogged oak timber from a Roman quay, around two thousand years old. Preserved by the airless Thames mud and now displayed in the open, it is a genuine piece of the wharf that lined Londinium's bustling river port.

Most of Roman London survives only as foundations under modern buildings, so to see actual Roman wood out in the daylight is rare and free. It is the sort of thing thousands hurry past daily without realising they are passing two millennia of history.