During excavations at Culver Street between 1981-2 and 1984-5, the north-east corner and western side of a large military building (CAT Building 84) was examined. The building was situated to the east of the via principalis (MCC760) along the south side of an east-west military street (MCC779). A total of nine rooms and a central yard could be interpreted from the excavated remains.

The walls were mainly built using square or rectangular posts set into trenches. Metal working took place in at least two rooms of the building with evidence for brass making and small scale smithing at two locations. The room used for brass making contained nine hearths, two of which produced fragments of brass-making crucibles. The adjacent room to the east appeared to have been separated by a partition wall and contained three hearths. The next room to the east was the largest of all and contained a substantial hearth or furnace constructed of sun-dried sandy blocks. Another small hearth or oven was found against the south side of the furnace and contained small fragments of iron-working debris perhaps representative of a forging hearth. Elsewhere in the room were three slots with burnt bases and a hearth presumably all used for metal working, together with a diagonal trench with soak away pit at one end. Many of the other rooms could only be cursorily examined although an oven was noted in section.
Along the north side of the building was a timber-lined drain (MCC777) set within a square-cut trench.

This large square or rectangular building was interpreted as being one of the eight buildings which normally occupy the scamnum tribunorum of Roman legionary fortresses. The evidence for metal working suggests that it may have been a fabrica although no waste materials were found in the area excavated. The building was demolished and succeeded by a new street (MCC733) and buildings (MCC783, MCC784, MCC785 and MCC786) on a new alignment prior to the Boudican revolt. <1>