Insula VI.1 lies at the north-western corner of Pompeii and is bounded by the Via Consolare and the Vicolo di Narciso. It was originally uncovered to the eruption level in 1770/71 and 1783-9. It was excavated as a summer school to train students (he Anglo-American Project at Pompeii AAPP) between 1996 and 2006. The aim was to excavate the area of the entire insula to natural. The only areas where complete excavation was not achieved were where there were extant mosaic floors, or where health and safety concerns prevented the exploration of small deep trenches. At the same time a full record of the standing walls was carried out. All of the spoil was sieved resulting in very full artefact recovery, and a large-scale environmental programme was undertaken.

At the time of the eruption in AD 79 the insula contained two large atrium houses (the Casa delle Vestali VI.1.6-8/24-6) and the Casa del Chirurgo (VI.1.9-10), an inn with a garden dining area (VI.1.1/4), several bars facing onto the Via Consolare (VI.1. 2-3, VI.1.5, VI.1.16-7/21, VI.1.18/20), a shrine (VI.1.13/22), a shop (VI.1.11-2) and an industrial area (VI.1.14-15/21), with a well and later a public fountain at its tip (VI.1.19). The excavations were able to show how the insula was developed, with the two houses providing the core of the early occupation and the other areas of the insula being in-filled afterwards. The use of the space within these other parts of the insula changed over time with a notable early feature being industrial processes that required large tanks which originally fronted the Via Consolare. Some of these developments have been outlined in Jones and Robinson 2004, 2005a, 2005b, 2008.

Specialist work started whilst the excavation was underway, and has continued since with final publications starting to appear. The coin assemblage has been published in full (see Hobbs 2013), and the monograph on the Casa del Chirurgo (Anderson et al forthcoming) will go the publishers early in 2015.