Excavations were undertaken under the direction of M.R. Hull, curator of the Castle Museum, in 1953 on the site of the southern precinct wall of the Roman Temple of Claudius (and towards the SW corner of the temple precinct), following a fire at Kent & Blaxhill in 1952. Investigations were also made during the construction of a new building on the site. The first trench was 3 feet wide and 37 feet long north-south. A total of 38 trenches, stanchion holes and pits were dug on the site and revealed a massive central block which it was assumed supported a monumental archway into the temple precinct/forum.<1><2> Hull writes (1955, p.172), 'It consisted chiefly of one continuous, massive foundation running east to west, 15 ft. wide and 4-5 ft. high. Its flat top served as a platform upon which an architectural screen in the form of an arcade had been built, facing south on to the main street.' 'The remains of the building erected upon this platform show it as a series of separate units each about 6 ft. long, consisting of massive piers and short walls set alternately. The former had concrete cores which had been cased in fine ashlar of shelly limestone, at least around their lower part. In one case a block remained in position, and in most cases the mark of the blocks remained in the corework and in the very hard mortar on which they had been laid. The one stone left is a reused one. From pier to pier there had been arches formed of shaped voussoirs in tile, fragments of which arches were found, one fragment showing several courses of small septaria passing over the back (top) of the arch. At the back of each pier, presumably, there was a part-attached column built of coursed masonry, largely using the special segmental tiles. The most part of such a column lay shattered at full length behind one of the central piers. The archways were closed by comparatively thin walls carefully built of tiles and septaria on a broader foundation with offsets.' (p.173). Hull continues (pp.172-3), 'Four feet 6 inches from the south edge of the platform there is a small open drain running parallel; it is 18 in. wide and 12 in. deep, the sides formed of two courses of stone, thinly plastered, the bottom of plaster only. At 16 ft. 6 in. from the platform runs a larger drain, also parallel. This is the same as that already described (p. 65), made of tiles and 3 ft. wide. Fragments only of this remained, but the identity of it was certain.'