LONDON ARCHAEOLOGIST 1974 vol 2.10

All Guildhall Museum, Department of Urban Archaeology

Angel Court, Throgmorton Street. TQ 3283 8136. (M. Guterres).

A section was cut across the bed of a former tributary of the Walbrook which was canalised in the Roman period by revetting dumps of gravel and occupant on debris behind vertical piles and horizontal planks. The canal appears to have choked frequently, and it was necessary to raise the banks and renew the revetting periodically.

Billingsgate Baths, Lower Thames Street. TQ 3312 8065. (H. Pell).
Two ragstone walls of the 1st c. were set into natural clay. To the west was an early phase of timber piles and planks and an area of natural hillside revetted to prevent landslip. Past-dating this was a 1st c. dump in which a timber-lined water tank with a hollow log pipe had been placed.

Harp Lane. TQ 3316 8067. (R. Jones).
The excavation revealed two Roman buildings of different dates together with evidence of terracing on the waterfront side.

Ludgate Hill. TQ 3178 8118. (C. Hill).
A flat bottomed ditch was located near the alleged position of a bastion and to the south the butt ends of two successive ditches were traced. There was no evidence of the gate.

Minories. TQ 3371 8118. (A. Thompson).
The excavation disclosed a row of 17th c. cottages, a clay-pipe kiln and possible traces of buildings attached to a 16th c. convent.

New Fresh Wharf. TQ 3295 8066. (G. Clewley).
A substantial Roman (?late 2nd C.) timber box-frame waterfront was disclosed. To the south were fragments of a boat reused as shuttering behind the vertical posts Of a waterfront. Carbon l4 analysis of one of the silver birch posts has given a date of 760 a.d.

Seal House. TQ 3277 8067. (J. Schofield).
Three medieval waterfronts, in a good state of preservation, of 12th, early 13th and late 13th c. date were uncovered. Above these, tenements of six major periods from the early 1c. were built. The 2nd c. Roman waterfront was also reached but not excavated this season14th c. were built. The 2nd c. Roman waterfront was also reached but not excavated this season.

Triangle. TQ 3301 8069. (D. Jones).
A series of early 2nd c. oak revetments containing refuse deposits, which acted as terracing presumably supporting buildings, were found. There was evidence of subsequent stabilization in the form of piles and horizontal timber lacing. An east-west causeway of ragstone over piles was built, and fell out of use, in the 2nd c.

Trig Lane. TQ 3208 8086. (M. Harrison).
The first phase of a large excavation has revealed a section of a 14th c. timber waterfront, consisting of a rear revetment in front of which a braced framework extended 15m. into the river. Further south again was found a 15th c. ashlar wall. W.C.

Upper Thames Street. (Baynards). TQ 3188 8093. (D. Jones).
A trench 30m. east of the Mermaid trench disclosed two parallel east-west limestone walls, of which the southernmost was surmounted by brick facing with a rubble core to which a rectangular pier was attached. It is likely that the limestone walls represent the pre-1428 stone curtain wall of Baynard's Castle, and the brick wall and pier a post-1428 replacement.

Upper Thames Street (Mermaid). TQ 3186 8093. (M. Millett).
A trench was excavated across the original street line 20m. east of the Mermaid Theatre. There was evidence of dumping on the river edge from the late 3rd to late 4th c. A wall to check erosion post-dated this. The earliest road surface seems to date to the 11th or 12th c.

LAARC Archive

Baynard House, Queen Victoria Street / White Lion Hill, EC4. TQ 3194 8092 (Peter Marsden).
Excavations revealed part of the north wing of the medieval Baynard’s Castle, including the north gate and gate tower (Fig*BC74); the frontages of medieval houses between the medieval castle and the East Watergate dock; part of the north wing of the 16th c addition to the Castle; the cobbled entrance to the castle from Thames Street; evidence for Thames Street before the Great Fire of 1666, such as its construction and narrow width.

St Paul’s School, New Change, EC4. TQ 32140 81150 (P J Muir).
One trench, located on the W side of the school, revealed a Roman pit cut into the natural brickearth. It was severely disturbed by modern construction.

Wingate Centre, 62–64 Aldgate High Street, E1. TQ 3367 8120 (G A Thompson).
This site, to the S of Aldgate High Street and to the E of Minories, was used for sand- or brickearth-quarrying in the 12th c, but for most of the medieval period was open land. The first major development took place in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and was represented by substantial, though fragmentary, lengths of wall. The ground was used for rubbish-tipping, including refuse from a nearby slaughter-yard and waste and crucibles from a glass factory. A row of terraced properties were built on the site in the 1670s and demolished in the mid 18th c. To the S of these lay a further building whose cellar was the only room surviving. All these structures are visible on contemporary maps; the archaeological evidence shows that they included both domestic units (houses of two-room plan with axial chimneys) and workshops. In one workshop a fragmentary clay pipe kiln was found. The associated household finds and faunal remains enable a distinction of status to be made between the main block of houses and the richer building to the S.