More information : Extensions at the rear of Morant's shop between Tower Street and Chapel Lane, N of West Street in 1962 exposed part of the Public Baths, with apsidal cold tank and flint walls at least 5ft thick on the site of an earlier set of baths; to the later buildings belong a black-and-white geometric mosaic exposed in 1960. (1)
The site of the Roman Baths, proved by excavation, is centred at SU85950489 (2)
Excavations in 1973 on the Post office site recovered evidence for the Roman Baths. Two rooms initially constructed in the Flavian period were recorded. Room A has a tessellated floor, the final laying of which dated to the fourth century. As a result of the trial excavation it was possible to trace the east wing of the Thermae for a distance of 27 metres, and if this is related to observations in 1960, then a total of 57 metres can be postulated. (3)
Three small trial trenches in 1982 located the caldarium of the Roman baths, beneath the redundant church of St Peter the Great. (4)
The public Baths in Chichester are known to lie below the Telephone Exchange in Chapel Street and the Army and Navy stores in West Street; with the western boundary being below the church of St Peter-the-Great and the houses to the north of the church on the west side of Tower Street.
The northern part of the baths, which comprised some of the heated suites, was excavated in 1974-5 and the discoveries made then linked with observations of foundation trenches for the telephone exchange in Chapel Street, enabled an estimate of the size of the baths complex of about 5,500 square metres in area. The southern part of the baths extended south of the Army and Navy stores.
It is doubtful whether a complete plan of the baths can ever be recovered, but sufficient was seen during the rescue excavations of 1974-5 to show that there were several periods of alteration, with cold rooms being converted to hot and vice versa.
The baths probably lasted throughout the life of the town, from the later years of Cogidubnus's rule until the early fifth century. (5)
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