May 12, 2026 –
In person lecture
This talk will focus on the history and archaeology of the Palace of Westminster and my role as Archaeology Lead at Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal. Learn about the approach we are taking to understanding archaeological significance and survival across the site to inform future design and management on this major programme while also enhancing existing research on this part of the World Heritage Site.
The Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL
Archaeology at the Palace of Westminster (In-Person)
Diane Abrams, Archaeology Lead, Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal
This talk will focus on the history and archaeology of the Palace of Westminster and my role as Archaeology Lead at Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal. Learn about the approach we are taking to understanding archaeological significance and survival across the site to inform future design and management on this major programme while also enhancing existing research on this part of the World Heritage Site.
April 14, 2026 –
In person lecture.
This talk will present information about just some of the National Trust’s properties in the Greater London area, which are located across 15 of the 32 boroughs. The presentation will discuss the wide variety of archaeological sites cared for by the conservation charity, located within a range of urban and suburban contexts, from grand mansions such as Osterley and Ham House, to landscapes and parklands, plus some of our smaller properties and curiosities, like the Strand Lane Roman Bath’
The Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL
National Trust Archaeology in London and Middlesex (In-person)
Nathalie Cohen, National Trust Archaeology in London and Middlesex
This talk will present information about just some of the National Trust’s properties in the Greater London area, which are located across 15 of the 32 boroughs. The presentation will discuss the wide variety of archaeological sites cared for by the conservation charity, located within a range of urban and suburban contexts, from grand mansions such as Osterley and Ham House, to landscapes and parklands, plus some of our smaller properties and curiosities, like the Strand Lane Roman Bath’
March 10, 2026 –
In person lecture
A vast wave of Edwardian women working in cities created an urgent need for an affordable, respectable new business-minded enterprise: the single woman’s hostel. This talk describes the campaigns to house a new generation of intrepid working women, the specialized design of the buildings, and the women whose lives were changed by this remarkable architectural
The Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL
Hostel, House and Chambers: Accommodating the working woman in Victorian and Edwardian London (In-person)
Emily Gee
A vast wave of Edwardian women working in cities created an urgent need for an affordable, respectable new business-minded enterprise: the single woman’s hostel. This talk describes the campaigns to house a new generation of intrepid working women, the specialized design of the buildings, and the women whose lives were changed by this remarkable architectural
February 10, 2026 –
In-Person lecture
Please note that the AGM will start at 6pm and the Presidential Address will follow:– Mapping Restoration London — This lecture follows on from last year’s, in which I explored the process of mapping early Tudor London, c. 1520, using the Historic Towns Trust’s map published in 2018. Mapping Restoration London, on the eve of the Great Fire of 1666, presents new challenges and logistical problems. Over the period from the 1520s to the 1660s, London’s population increased four-or five-fold, and the built-up area spread far beyond the walled city, linking Westminster and the east end in a single metropolitan conurbation. There is no shortage of sources for mapping this transformation, and for the first time we have contemporary picture-maps and perspectives showing us what London looked like, though the first surveyed maps date from the 1670s and 1680s. The Fire itself, while destroying four-fifths of the walled city, generated plentiful documentation that allows quite detailed reconstruction of most of the burnt areas. The real challenge is to collect and collate all the data needed to present a map covering the whole of London, without drowning in detail. By the time of this lecture, the project to create such a map will be well under way, and I will report on progress, challenges encountered, decisions made, and first glimpses of the finished product.
The Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL
AGM and Presidential Address – Mapping Restoration London (In-Person)
Vanessa Harding, Emeritus Professor of London History, Birkbeck, University of London
Please note that the AGM will start at 6pm and the Presidential Address will follow:– Mapping Restoration London — This lecture follows on from last year’s, in which I explored the process of mapping early Tudor London, c. 1520, using the Historic Towns Trust’s map published in 2018. Mapping Restoration London, on the eve of the Great Fire of 1666, presents new challenges and logistical problems. Over the period from the 1520s to the 1660s, London’s population increased four-or five-fold, and the built-up area spread far beyond the walled city, linking Westminster and the east end in a single metropolitan conurbation. There is no shortage of sources for mapping this transformation, and for the first time we have contemporary picture-maps and perspectives showing us what London looked like, though the first surveyed maps date from the 1670s and 1680s. The Fire itself, while destroying four-fifths of the walled city, generated plentiful documentation that allows quite detailed reconstruction of most of the burnt areas. The real challenge is to collect and collate all the data needed to present a map covering the whole of London, without drowning in detail. By the time of this lecture, the project to create such a map will be well under way, and I will report on progress, challenges encountered, decisions made, and first glimpses of the finished product.
January 13, 2026 –
In person lecture.
When Annie first met Karen back in late 2001 while they were both volunteering for the Big Dig at the Museum of London, she outlined her idea to set up a Young Archaeologists Club based at the Museum and 23 years (nearly 24 now) since that idea came to fruition they will be sharing the story of the club in this talk. They’ll tell of the challenges and hard work involved in keeping the club going but mostly the fun and enjoyment they, and hopefully the young archaeologists themselves, have had along the way.
The Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL
Digging Up the Future: 23 years of the Central London Young Archaeologists Club
Karen Thomas and Annie De Saulles, Central London YAC
When Annie first met Karen back in late 2001 while they were both volunteering for the Big Dig at the Museum of London, she outlined her idea to set up a Young Archaeologists Club based at the Museum and 23 years (nearly 24 now) since that idea came to fruition they will be sharing the story of the club in this talk. They’ll tell of the challenges and hard work involved in keeping the club going but mostly the fun and enjoyment they, and hopefully the young archaeologists themselves, have had along the way.
December 9, 2025
The Site of Stepney Way in Whitechapel was excavated in 2018-19 by Steve White who led the team at Archaeology South-East. Steve will tell the story of the excavation and its main discoveries, including over 2000 years of London Archaeology: from Iron Age farmsteads to Medieval manors, from sites of Tudor entertainment to 17th and 18th century pleasure gardens and taverns, finishing the story with intriguing details of census information and cess pits! Sarah Wolferstan, Archaeology South-East's public engagement specialist, will describe how she has partnered with storytellers, local archaeologists and historians from London's Black community to reflect on London's colonial legacies.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
Farms, playhouse and taverns: radical experiments and liberation in Whitechapel
Sarah Wolferstan and Steve White, Archaeology South-East
The Site of Stepney Way in Whitechapel was excavated in 2018-19 by Steve White who led the team at Archaeology South-East. Steve will tell the story of the excavation and its main discoveries, including over 2000 years of London Archaeology: from Iron Age farmsteads to Medieval manors, from sites of Tudor entertainment to 17th and 18th century pleasure gardens and taverns, finishing the story with intriguing details of census information and cess pits! Sarah Wolferstan, Archaeology South-East's public engagement specialist, will describe how she has partnered with storytellers, local archaeologists and historians from London's Black community to reflect on London's colonial legacies.
November 11, 2025 –
In-Person
The lecture will briefly summarise the results of Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA) in around Bermondsey Square over 20 years from 1998 to 2018. The sites are not only significant in relation to the Cluniac priory and later Benedictine abbey of St Saviour, but the excavations also revealed evidence spanning the Iron Age to modern periods. The site lies on land that formed the Bermondsey Eyot during the prehistoric period. A few pits and a small pottery assemblage attest to settlement during the Iron Age. Evidence for the Roman period suggested a landscape predominantly given over to agriculture. However, in the later Roman period ,robber trenches, and significant amounts of ceramic building material including opus signinum suggest that substantial masonry buildings were extant to the north of Bermondsey Square in the area of Stevens Street. Fragmentary wall foundations, of an east-west aligned building or series of buildings and associated small finds and coinage may be the first archaeological evidence for a middle Saxon minster at Bermondsey. By the 10th century a small apsidal church had been constructed with a small number of inhumations nearby. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the excavations at Bermondsey was the evidence of extensive medieval foundations that allowed us to undertake a detailed reconstruction of the Cluniac Priory and its subsequent development until the dissolution of the abbey in the 16th century. In 1539 the site of the former monastery was acquired by Rober Southwell and later sold to Sir Thomas Pope, who built a large mansion. The excavations revealed Pope’s mansion as a grand double court-yard building with a separate range pf buildings to the east constructed I the 17th century. A Presbyterian cemetery unearthed on the west side of Bermondsey Square was a graphic demonstration of the special character of Bermondsey as a stronghold for religious dissent In the 18th Century King John’s court was developed for ‘artisan’ housing. The archaeological remains, topographic and documentary evidence dated to this period gave a fascinating in site into the social history of this part of Bermondsey.
Room 612, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
Bermondsey Square: Prehistoric and Roman Settlement, Medieval Abbey and Post-Medieval Mansion
Alistair Douglas, Pre Construct Archaeology
The lecture will briefly summarise the results of Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA) in around Bermondsey Square over 20 years from 1998 to 2018. The sites are not only significant in relation to the Cluniac priory and later Benedictine abbey of St Saviour, but the excavations also revealed evidence spanning the Iron Age to modern periods. The site lies on land that formed the Bermondsey Eyot during the prehistoric period. A few pits and a small pottery assemblage attest to settlement during the Iron Age. Evidence for the Roman period suggested a landscape predominantly given over to agriculture. However, in the later Roman period ,robber trenches, and significant amounts of ceramic building material including opus signinum suggest that substantial masonry buildings were extant to the north of Bermondsey Square in the area of Stevens Street. Fragmentary wall foundations, of an east-west aligned building or series of buildings and associated small finds and coinage may be the first archaeological evidence for a middle Saxon minster at Bermondsey. By the 10th century a small apsidal church had been constructed with a small number of inhumations nearby. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the excavations at Bermondsey was the evidence of extensive medieval foundations that allowed us to undertake a detailed reconstruction of the Cluniac Priory and its subsequent development until the dissolution of the abbey in the 16th century. In 1539 the site of the former monastery was acquired by Rober Southwell and later sold to Sir Thomas Pope, who built a large mansion. The excavations revealed Pope’s mansion as a grand double court-yard building with a separate range pf buildings to the east constructed I the 17th century. A Presbyterian cemetery unearthed on the west side of Bermondsey Square was a graphic demonstration of the special character of Bermondsey as a stronghold for religious dissent In the 18th Century King John’s court was developed for ‘artisan’ housing. The archaeological remains, topographic and documentary evidence dated to this period gave a fascinating in site into the social history of this part of Bermondsey.
October 14, 2025
This talk will present the most recent findings from a site at Holborn Viaduct, excavated in 2023–24, stemming from the ongoing post-excavation assessment work. It will focus on the early Roman burial ground located just south of the western cemetery and nested between the Roman road of Watling Street and the river Fleet. The site has produced well preserved burial remains and extraordinary finds assemblages, suggesting that the cemetery and its setting may have been of special significance. From the evidence of land reclamation, well preserved coffins, and the rare example of funerary bed to luxurious grave goods and personal adornments, this site tells a rich story of how the early Romans interacted with this marginal area of Londinium and treated the dead.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
Roman cemetery at Holborn Viaduct: post-excavation updates
Alex Blanks, MOLA
This talk will present the most recent findings from a site at Holborn Viaduct, excavated in 2023–24, stemming from the ongoing post-excavation assessment work. It will focus on the early Roman burial ground located just south of the western cemetery and nested between the Roman road of Watling Street and the river Fleet. The site has produced well preserved burial remains and extraordinary finds assemblages, suggesting that the cemetery and its setting may have been of special significance. From the evidence of land reclamation, well preserved coffins, and the rare example of funerary bed to luxurious grave goods and personal adornments, this site tells a rich story of how the early Romans interacted with this marginal area of Londinium and treated the dead.
May 13, 2025 –
Lectures
Pre- Construct Archaeology Ltd (PCA) undertook an excavation on land at the Welbourne Site, Tottenham Hale Centre, London Borough of Haringey between 21st November 2019 and 13th March 2020. Three Early Mesolithic lithic scatters of high density were found stratified in the upper horizon of the Enfield Silt brickearth. Each scatter sub-assemblage appears to be of Deepcar-type, a chrono-cultural tradition with a floruit in the 9th millennium BC. There is a notable association of typical Deepcar-type microliths with rarer forms of isosceles triangle and this may point towards a distinct facies of the Deepcar chrono-cultural grouping. Each scatter comprised discrete areas of flint knapping i.e. the working of nodules into cores and production of blade/bladelet/flake tool blanks and their waste, as well as production of core tools (axes/picks). Much of this activity seems to have occurred around surface hearths evident from dense areas of burnt worked flint in each scatter. Tools were manufactured and or/maintained at the site with identifiable activity zones for hunting toolkit maintenance (microlith replacement), probable butchery and other resource processing including hide scraping, antler/bone and wood working. Worked lithics at lesser density were also recovered from the brickearth surface across the wider extent of the stripped site. More recent excavations at the Ferry Island site, some 400m to the southeast, have revealed similar scatters suggesting that this part of the Lea valley may have been a possible focal area for Mesolithic activity.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
Joint Prehistoric Society and LAMAS Lecture Hunter Gatherers in Tottenham
Shane Maher, Pre-Construct Archaeology
Pre- Construct Archaeology Ltd (PCA) undertook an excavation on land at the Welbourne Site, Tottenham Hale Centre, London Borough of Haringey between 21st November 2019 and 13th March 2020. Three Early Mesolithic lithic scatters of high density were found stratified in the upper horizon of the Enfield Silt brickearth. Each scatter sub-assemblage appears to be of Deepcar-type, a chrono-cultural tradition with a floruit in the 9th millennium BC. There is a notable association of typical Deepcar-type microliths with rarer forms of isosceles triangle and this may point towards a distinct facies of the Deepcar chrono-cultural grouping. Each scatter comprised discrete areas of flint knapping i.e. the working of nodules into cores and production of blade/bladelet/flake tool blanks and their waste, as well as production of core tools (axes/picks). Much of this activity seems to have occurred around surface hearths evident from dense areas of burnt worked flint in each scatter. Tools were manufactured and or/maintained at the site with identifiable activity zones for hunting toolkit maintenance (microlith replacement), probable butchery and other resource processing including hide scraping, antler/bone and wood working. Worked lithics at lesser density were also recovered from the brickearth surface across the wider extent of the stripped site. More recent excavations at the Ferry Island site, some 400m to the southeast, have revealed similar scatters suggesting that this part of the Lea valley may have been a possible focal area for Mesolithic activity.
April 8, 2025
The phenomenon of the Rhenish stoneware Bartmann jug is the subject of a major collaborative Anglo-German research project. This talk highlights the wealth of information that can be derived from their study, throwing light on their development, typology, trade networks, marketing, influence, usage and global reach.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
Bartmann Goes Global! How German stoneware travelled round the known world in the 16th/17th century
Jacqui Pearce, Senior Specialist – Medieval and Later Ceramics and Finds, MOLA
The phenomenon of the Rhenish stoneware Bartmann jug is the subject of a major collaborative Anglo-German research project. This talk highlights the wealth of information that can be derived from their study, throwing light on their development, typology, trade networks, marketing, influence, usage and global reach.
March 11, 2025
The talk will focus on my role as community archaeologist for the Greenwich Park Revealed project. This is a multi-million pound National Lottery Heritage Fund scheme, to restore and conserve Greenwich Park. I have been working on sites across the park, from Saxon Barrows to a Magnetic Observatory and from an air raid shelter to a Charles II landscape! The talk will cover the history and archaeology of this much-loved park.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
Community Archaeology in a Royal Park (Greenwich)
Andrew Mayfield Community Archaeologist, The Royal Parks
The talk will focus on my role as community archaeologist for the Greenwich Park Revealed project. This is a multi-million pound National Lottery Heritage Fund scheme, to restore and conserve Greenwich Park. I have been working on sites across the park, from Saxon Barrows to a Magnetic Observatory and from an air raid shelter to a Charles II landscape! The talk will cover the history and archaeology of this much-loved park.
February 20, 2025
The LAMAS AGM will start at 6PM, followed by the lecture at 6.30 PM This lecture follows on from last year’s, in which Vanessa Harding explored mapping medieval London, with special reference to the Historic Towns Trust’s map of London c. 1300, published in 2019. This year she will discuss early Tudor London, using HTT’s map published in 2018. This shows London c. 1520, when it was still a ‘medieval’ city: the monasteries and friaries had reached their final form, before the destruction and repurposing of the Dissolution; the guilds or Livery Companies had flourished and put down roots, building impressive halls for entertainment and business; the growing legal profession had colonised the city’s western suburb. Visitors marvelled at London’s wealth, and especially its famous bridge. Mapping early Tudor London is a question of navigating the profusion of written and archaeological sources, and establishing what was there before the dramatic changes brought by the Reformation and enormous economic and population growth in the later 16th century.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
AGM and Presidential Address – Mapping early Tudor London
Vanessa Harding, Emeritus Professor of London History, Birkbeck, University of London
The LAMAS AGM will start at 6PM, followed by the lecture at 6.30 PM This lecture follows on from last year’s, in which Vanessa Harding explored mapping medieval London, with special reference to the Historic Towns Trust’s map of London c. 1300, published in 2019. This year she will discuss early Tudor London, using HTT’s map published in 2018. This shows London c. 1520, when it was still a ‘medieval’ city: the monasteries and friaries had reached their final form, before the destruction and repurposing of the Dissolution; the guilds or Livery Companies had flourished and put down roots, building impressive halls for entertainment and business; the growing legal profession had colonised the city’s western suburb. Visitors marvelled at London’s wealth, and especially its famous bridge. Mapping early Tudor London is a question of navigating the profusion of written and archaeological sources, and establishing what was there before the dramatic changes brought by the Reformation and enormous economic and population growth in the later 16th century.
January 14, 2025
This lecture will discuss the history and archaeology of the Chapel Royal and Royal Peculiar of Saint Peter ad Vincula which, for the last 500 years, has been the parish church of HM Palace and Fortress the Tower of London. The talk will include a chronology of the buildings development, the impact of the designation of 'Royal Peculiar' upon archaeological excavations, the results of excavations undertaken in 2019 and of the subsequent analysis of skeletal remains exhumed during those works funded by the LAMAS Research Grant 2022/23.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
’The Fishful Thames’’: Fish and Fishing on the River Thames
Natalie Cohen, National Trust
This lecture will discuss the history and archaeology of the Chapel Royal and Royal Peculiar of Saint Peter ad Vincula which, for the last 500 years, has been the parish church of HM Palace and Fortress the Tower of London. The talk will include a chronology of the buildings development, the impact of the designation of 'Royal Peculiar' upon archaeological excavations, the results of excavations undertaken in 2019 and of the subsequent analysis of skeletal remains exhumed during those works funded by the LAMAS Research Grant 2022/23.
December 10, 2024 –
Hybrid
This talk presents the history of the Southwark deep shelter, possibly the largest civilian air raid shelter constructed during WW2 using disused tube tunnels under Borough High Street. The talk examines the development, planning and use of the shelter during the war and proposals for its post-war use as a nuclear shelter and its fate. The rediscovery of the shelter has been somewhat of a surprise that an enterprise of this scale had been forgotten, and its rediscovery as archaeology on two sites and the survival of fabric within a prominent Southwark listed building adds to its interest.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
The Southwark Deep Shelter, from tube line to nuclear Armageddon
Dr Chris Constable, Borough Archaeologist, LB Southwark
This talk presents the history of the Southwark deep shelter, possibly the largest civilian air raid shelter constructed during WW2 using disused tube tunnels under Borough High Street. The talk examines the development, planning and use of the shelter during the war and proposals for its post-war use as a nuclear shelter and its fate. The rediscovery of the shelter has been somewhat of a surprise that an enterprise of this scale had been forgotten, and its rediscovery as archaeology on two sites and the survival of fabric within a prominent Southwark listed building adds to its interest.
November 12, 2024 –
Hybrid
An archaeological watching brief at the Scheduled Monument of Headstone Manor by Oxford Archaeology provided unexpected evidence of the medieval kitchen and a range of other demolished buildings on the moated island. In the Outer Court, the watching brief uncovered buildings known from historic maps of the site, and also ponds and waterlogged timbers that were previously unknown.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
New light on the medieval and post-medieval manor at Headstone, Middlesex
Tim Allen, Oxford Archaeology
An archaeological watching brief at the Scheduled Monument of Headstone Manor by Oxford Archaeology provided unexpected evidence of the medieval kitchen and a range of other demolished buildings on the moated island. In the Outer Court, the watching brief uncovered buildings known from historic maps of the site, and also ponds and waterlogged timbers that were previously unknown.
October 8, 2024 –
Hybrid
This lecture presents the initial results of a series of community excavations undertaken at Cranford Park over the course of four years, by AOC Archaeology Group on behalf of the London Borough of Hillingdon's community archaeologist, Paul McGarrity. The excavations took place in the grounds of a former country estate associated with a post-medieval stately home, the below-ground remains of which were investigated during this project. The history and archaeology of Cranford extends well beyond this time period, however: the earliest written reference to the settlement dates to the late Saxon period, while our excavations revealed evidence indicative of an even deeper past, that includes earlier prehistoric, Iron Age and Roman activity.
Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY
Friends, Romans, Country House: lend me your labour! Preliminary results from a series of community excavations at Cranford Park, London Borough of Hillingdon
Les Capon, AOC Archaeology
This lecture presents the initial results of a series of community excavations undertaken at Cranford Park over the course of four years, by AOC Archaeology Group on behalf of the London Borough of Hillingdon's community archaeologist, Paul McGarrity. The excavations took place in the grounds of a former country estate associated with a post-medieval stately home, the below-ground remains of which were investigated during this project. The history and archaeology of Cranford extends well beyond this time period, however: the earliest written reference to the settlement dates to the late Saxon period, while our excavations revealed evidence indicative of an even deeper past, that includes earlier prehistoric, Iron Age and Roman activity.