In 1934 the site of the new GPO was examined before the new building was begun. A broad band along the E side bordering Head Street was "useless" because of a continuous series of cellars of old buildings. Behind was a large area that had been yards and gardens - largely inaccessible due to extensive dumps of building materials. Trench cut E-W across the centre of the site. The top 7ft was disturbed and contained pits of post-Medieval date; unstratified finds included an intact firma lamp, Roman or Saxon iron knife with ornamental bone handle. Below 7-8ft the pottery was entirely Roman but there was no stratification worth noting. At the W end of the trench scanty remains of walls led excavators to a semi- circular bath sunk to a lower level than the rest of the building (Photo in source 1); interior diameter 11ft with walls 1.75ft thick. The floor was of small white tesserae laid on c.6" of fine mortar and carried 6" up the walls - above this the walls were plastered. Part of the apsidal wall and much of the floor had been robbed. A short length of footing led from the apse but of the rest of the house there were no remains traceable. The walls of the apse remained to a height of 2.5ft. The fill contained a good deal of pottery of late C1, also many fragments of tiles, chiefly imbrices and tegulae. There was one piece of red-painted wall plaster and two fragments of slabs of Purbeck marble. A second trench cut N and W of the cellars was also generally disturbed but a patch of undisturbed later Roman level was located - this contained pottery of C1-C3 and some red and buff tesserae. A third trench was dug toward the NW corner of the site. In the first 10ft away from the second trench pottery was abundant, below 3.5ft it was all Roman but with no visible stratification. The pottery covered the entire Roman period. The rest of the trench was disturbed but in the extreme NW corner of the site was a red tessellated pavement c.2ft below the surface and 10ft square. The walls had been robbed and the edges broken. It appeared to have been repaired with two slabs of Purbeck marble on the S side. An antoninianus of Tetricus was found on the floor which continued under the old PO northwards. <1> Other ref. <2>