The Archaeology of Greater London

An Overview Of London’s Archaeology taken from the Introduction For The London Radiocarbon Review (by Jane Sidell)

Click on References for sources, and also Getting Involved > Read for further reading suggestions

Introduction to London’s topography and archaeology

Solid geology

The London Basin is bounded to the north and north-west by the chalk of the Chiltern Hills, the Berkshire Downs to the west and the North Downs to the south. On the east, the region is bounded by the North Sea into which the River Thames drains.  The Upper Cretaceous Chalk Group underlies the entire basin but only rises as hills on the fringes of the regions. It is overlain by Thanet Sands that outcrop around the borders of the Thames basin. Subsequent deposits include the marine and estuarine sands of the Lambeth Group, overlain by marine London Clay which outcrops in many of the tributary valleys and is present in swathes across South London. The Claygate Member and the sands of the Bagshot Formation cap the London Clay in these areas of South London. This in turn is more widely overlain by marine clay, sand and gravel of the Bracklesham and Barton Beds.
The Geology of the London Basin is described by Natural England.

Drift Geology

The drift geology of the region is significantly more complex than the solid; a result of the activities of the River Thames since it entered the current Thames Valley approximately 450,000 years ago. Some earlier drift deposits are found in a few areas, including the so-called Plateau Gravel (Whittaker 1889, 296) or High Level Terraces preserved as relict landforms such as Shooters Hill and Crystal Palace. Subsequently, Thames river terraces were deposited and are extensively published (Bridgland 1994; Gibbard 1994). Holocene deposits are more variable and have not been examined in the same level of detail. Recent work has shown a complex pattern of interdigitating peat and minerogenic deposition within the river valleys and soils above the higher terraces away from the modern floodplain.

Archaeology

Palaeolithic (c. 450, 000 – 10,000 cal BC)

Palaeolithic evidence in the London region is extensive in comparison with other parts of the British Isles and appears to be specifically associated with the river valley, which acted as a focus for hominid and human activity. Much of the evidence takes the form of flint tools, mainly recovered by antiquarians in the 19th century when gravel extraction was undertaken by hand and the Thames was extensively dredged. Tens of thousands of these have been recovered; however, they are generally out of context, with rare exceptions such as the ‘nests’ of flints recovered from Wansunt Pit (Chandler and Leach 1912). The Upper Palaeolithic is more sparsely recovered; the site at Three Ways Wharf, Uxbridge is the only good example of an in situ Upper Palaeolithic site in London (Lewis 1991) and there is only limited material available from this period elsewhere, for instance a small group from the World Cargo site at Heathrow. Nevertheless, with the exception of the major hiatus in human occupation now seen more extensively across Britain (Ashton & Lewis 2002), London has a exceptional Palaeolithic record.

The Mesolithic (c.10,000-4000 cal BC)

The Mesolithic is also relatively ephemeral: much of the evidence is in the form of flint tools, mainly from the river. The site of Three Ways Wharf, mentioned above, also contained an Early Mesolithic scatter and is the most significant site of this date (Lewis 1991). The re-fitting and matching of the tools with the bones show that carcass processing (red deer and aurochs) was being undertaken here. Another Early Mesolithic site comes from the Old Kent Road (Sidell et al. 2002), and shows tool production and hide processing on the margins of a palaeolake. A Late Mesolithic site at Erith (Bennell 1998) consisted of an extensive tool production site on the contemporary foreshore. Dryland sites are rare, however, the extensive site at West Heath, Hampstead (Collins and Lorimer 1989) is a striking example of human activity away from the floodplain using the higher, forested ground. 

Later prehistory (4000 cal BC – AD 43)

Traditionally, the Neolithic period is thought to have seen the first appearance of settled groups, farming and ceramic production. These are acknowledged to have overlapped with a continuity of the mobile hunter-forager lifestyle; this continuation appears to be extremely pronounced in London, in that there is very little evidence for early settled farming groups at all. Very little early pottery has been found, however, there is evidence for early settlement in East London with a range of artefact types and several enclosure-like features and an early burial.

The Early Neolithic in Britain is also known for monumental structures. Again, these are lacking within Greater London, although there are several on the periphery, for instance the Staines ring ditch and the Yeoveney Lodge causewayed enclosure (Merriman 1990). In the later Neolithic, from c. 3000 cal BC settlement does begin to occur, mainly on the west London terraces. In addition to isolated settlements such as Shepperton, Heathrow and Kingston, ritual structures were constructed; most spectacularly the 4km long Stanwell Cursus. Some activity of Late Neolithic date has been recovered from the floodplain, such as the Silvertown trackway (Crockett et al., 2002), the Dagenham idol and occupation in North Woolwich.

Activity increases into the Bronze Age, with development of extensive field systems over west (and later east) London (Yates 1999), which in some cases made use of the existing ‘ritual landscape’. West London was the focus for settlement in this period, but there is also evidence in the east London floodplain in the form of timber trackways and platforms (Meddens 1996). As yet, no firm evidence for settlement has been found to go with these. It is from this date that we begin to see more activity in central London which shows evidence of a smaller version of the ritual landscape, followed by the creation of a farmed landscape centred on the Tower Bridge area.
Iron Age activity is more elusive in London: following a significant cultural change around 700 cal BC (Merriman 2000), there are only ephemeral traces of activity in central London Larger settlements are known from the gravel terraces of east and west London with enclosures such Uphall Camp and Hunts Hill Farm (Greenwood 1997, 2001); typical defended settlements with huts, granaries, sheds and stock enclosures within them. The Iron Age occupation of west London is slightly different – there seems to be less emphasis on defence and more evidence for farming with good examples at Stockley Park (MoLAS 2000, 106) and Imperial College Sports Ground (Crockett 2002). This pattern of isolated small settlements and farmsteads appears to have continued until, and in some cases beyond, the Roman invasion of Britain.
Find out more about London's Prehistory through the Museum of London's London Before London

The Roman period (AD 47-410)

Roman London, Londinium, is thought to have been settled slightly after the Claudian conquest of AD 43 (Milne 1995). The archaeological evidence from Londinium is substantial, and takes the form of walls, buildings, roads, waterfronts, cemeteries and earthworks. The town is roughly similar in location to the modern City of London, including north Southwark. The hinterland gradually became occupied, with settlements springing up in places such as Brockley Hill, Brentford, Ewell and Staines (Sheldon and Schaaf 1978). Londinium developed rapidly with significant amounts of building completed by AD 60, when the Boudican revolt razed the city to the ground. Massive fire horizons of this date have been found across the city and Southwark; rather than abandon the town, the rubble was cleared, or levelled and built upon. The waterfront sequence at Regis House shows that by AD 63 a new substantial waterfront had been constructed (Brigham et al. 1996) and from this date the major public buildings appear, such as the amphitheatre (Bateman 2000), legionary fortress (Grimes 1968, Lakin and Howe 2004) and forum-basilica (Milne 1992) The city underwent a decline in the late 2nd/early 3rd century; made manifest in the decay of some of the larger buildings and the abandonment of whole insulae. This seems to have been partially reversed in the later 3rd century.

The hinterland was used mainly for farming, woodland management and ceramic production. There is some evidence for formal land division, whilst many settlements were located at the junctions of differing geologies in order to take advantage, for instance, of the gravel terraces for cereal production and the adjacent floodplain for pasture. Heathrow provides some of the best examples of farming, such as Wall Garden Farm, where field systems and several corn-drying ovens have been found (MoLAS 2000, 152). Villas are known, most of them at least fifteen kilometres from the city, for instance at Beddington and Keston, both of which have Iron Age precursors. 
Further descriptions of Roman London can be found at the Museum of London's Roman London, and Current Archaeology's: Timeline Roman London

The Saxon period (AD 410-1066)

The Saxon period sees a major change in occupation; Londinium was gradually abandoned, with concentration of settlement in the towns/villages and the villa estates. The archaeological record indicates that by the end of the 5th century, much of eastern England was under Saxon rule. In the London region, early Saxon occupation took the form of small villages, perhaps centred within political territories, for instance Hammersmith and Kingston. These tend to consist of timber structures, including large halls and smaller sunken-featured buildings. Field systems are particularly well represented in Harmondsworth (Cotton et al. 1986) and Croydon.
With the advent of the Christian era, London gained prominence as the primary see of England, with the appointment of Augustine as Archbishop in AD 601. Bede (Colgrave and Mynors 1969) records the construction of St Paul’s from AD 604. A temporary upset occurred with the reversion of the Kentish peoples to paganism, which involved moving the see to Canterbury until approximately AD 653. The first evidence for London re-emerging as a city comes with a charter of AD 672-4, (Whitelock 1955) which identified the 'port of London.' Certainly by this period there is archaeological evidence for the initial occupation along the Strand and Covent Garden, described by Bede (Colgrave and Mynors 1969, 142) as an emporium 'for many nations who came to it by land and sea'. Excavations in Covent Garden have shown that buildings of timber and daub were separated by paths and roads of rammed gravel and general detritus, with yards cut by vast rubbish pits (Malcolm et al. 2002). Amongst this, evidence has been found for metalworking, textile production and tanning but no public buildings.

The occupation of Lundenwic came to an end in AD 886 when King Alfred instructed the community to move within the walls of the Roman city, to afford themselves protection from Scandinavian raiders who seized power sometime in the 870’s (Blackburn and Dumville 1998, 122). Thus the settlement of Lundenburh came into being, radiating out from Queenhithe (Ayre et al. 1996). Trade and exchange seems still to have played a large part in life, with domestic and industrial clay and timber buildings, a timber waterfront and quayside, but with defensive structures. The occupation extended as far as Guildhall Yard (Bateman 1997) with timber and turf buildings and an attached cemetery. There was also a comparable burh established over the river in Southwark.

The medieval period (AD1066-1538)

From this date, the town expanded exponentially, most notably with the development of Westminster, which became the royal and political centre (Thomas et al. 2006). The growing significance of London can be seen by the number of religious houses and churches that were built in the early medieval period. These are amongst the most studied aspect of medieval London. In addition to the fifty-plus religious houses that were constructed, palaces were also built, such as Edward III’s palace in Rotherhithe, and the palace of the Bishops of Winchester in Southwark (Seeley et al. 2006). Manor houses began to spring up in the hinterland, generally at the centre of farming establishments. In addition to the manorial estates, a network of villages and small towns developed as areas of supply for the city and as market towns in their own right, including Rainham.  
You will find fuller descriptions of Saxon and Medieval London at the Museum of London's Medieval Gallery.

The post-medieval period (AD 1538-1900)

The actual division between the medieval and post-medieval periods is often debated and assigned to different dates. The date taken here is that of the Dissolution of the Monasteries because this led to a significant change in land use, the appearance of the city as well as the less physical changes in power and politics that accompanied the removal of the religious houses and the creation of the Church of England and the elevated role of the monarch. By this period, the city had grown enormously beyond Westminster, Spitalfields, to the south and the modern West End. The emphasis was more intensively focused on domestic and mercantile accommodation, rather than a city sprinkled with major foci such as the religious houses and the royal palaces. The nearby villages by now had grown into suburbs, i.e. Islington.

Much of the evidence from this period remains in the form of standing buildings, particularly of the post-Great Fire period. These include obvious public buildings such as at Westminster. Unfortunately, much of the archaeology has suffered by its proximity to the modern ground surface, i.e. the Rose Theatre, as well as a lack of interest in a subject only recently fully accepted as an archaeological subdiscipline, whilst investigation into the industrial archaeology of London has barely begun.
Find out much more at  Exploring 20th Century London