Public entertainment was an important part of Roman urban life, and Roman Britain was no exception. The Roman historian Tacitus listed a theatre among the public buildings erected at Camulodunum (Colchester), near the temple dedicated to the emperor Claudius. A theatre was built in Verulamium (St Albans) in the 2nd century AD, and the remains of several other theatres have been found.

Amphitheatres in Roman Britain would have staged events like cock-fighting, bear-baiting and gladiatorial combats. They were not elaborate, vaulted stone buildings like the Mediterranean amphitheatres. Often sited on a natural dip in the ground, they had earth banks with wood or stone retaining walls – an example survives at Dorchester, which was built on the site of a Neolithic henge monument.

The third major place of entertainment was the circus, the venue for chariot racing. Remains of a circus have recently been found at Colchester, but elsewhere in Britain temporary race-tracks may have been used. Both the native Britons and many of the Roman auxiliaries from Gaul and Germany had traditions of chariot warfare. Chariot racing was a popular subject for the decoration of a wide range of vessels and lamps, and a chariot-racing mosaic survives in a villa at Horkstow, Humberside.