Volume 75 - 2024

The issue available for download in December 2028 for non-members

RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT LESNES AUGUSTINIAN ABBEY, BEXLEY, LONDON SE2: A MEDIEVAL GATEHOUSE, ELEMENTS OF THE PRECINCT WALL AND BURIALS Joseph Brooks. The cover (below) depicts the ground plan of Lesnes Abbey (1178–1525) produced by Sir Alfred Clapham in 1915 as a result of the excavations he directed there between 1909 and 1913. During 1938–9 and 1951–60, annual seasons of fieldwork were undertaken to facilitate the public presentation of the structural remains of the abbey. In 2015–18 further fieldwork was undertaken as part of the Lesnes Abbey Woods Enhancement Project, which is the subject of this article. Today the foundations of the monastic church, cloisters and some adjoining buildings are laid out as a monument in Lesnes Abbey Woods Park, New Road, SE2 0AX, to which there is unrestricted public access. The park is easily reached via Southeastern rail or the Elizabeth Line (Abbey Wood station). The site has public toilets and a small café, which also sells an excellent guidebook (entitled Lesnes Abbey) written by Chris Hawkins for £7.99. This guide is also available online from Amazon for £11.99.

The other articles in this issue are:

PREHISTORIC AND HISTORIC LANDSCAPES: EXCAVATIONS AT SIPSON FARM, SIPSON, LONDON BOROUGH OF HILLINGDON, 2010–2014 Robert Cowie. Excavations carried out at Sipson Farm on a 13-hectare site in advance of gravel extraction revealed extensive evidence for the changing pattern of agrarian, funerary and residential land use over the last 10,000 years on the gravel terraces of west London. Among the earliest features discovered was a ring ditch, probably dating to the Middle or Late Neolithic. The later significant features, which dated to the 13th and 14th centuries, included several ditched enclosures and waterholes.

EXCAVATIONS AT CARRINGTON STREET CAR PARK, CITY OF WESTMINSTER, LONDON W1: FROM THE PREHISTORIC TYBURN TO POST-MEDIEVAL RECLAMATION AND DEVELOPMENT Ireneo Grosso and Kevin Rielly. The excavation of a tributary of the River Tyburn (now one of the most famous of London’s lost rivers) and its environs revealed a sequence of human activity starting with the Neolithic and Bronze Age. During the 17th century this marshy area was reclaimed and drained. In the early 18th century a large number of cattle carcasses were dumped here; they were probably slaughtered during the Rinderpest epidemic. By the mid-18th century, the development of the site for housing and stables had started.

EXCAVATIONS AT CENTURION HOUSE, 24 MONUMENT STREET, CITY OF LONDON EC3: THE PORT OF ROMAN LONDON REVISITED Fiona Seeley and Jeremy Taylor. The discovery of the early Roman port around the bridgehead complete with well-preserved timber quays and blocks of quayside warehouses was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries made in London during the 1970s and 1980s. This fieldwork inspired Gus Milne’s 1985 book: The Port of Roman London. In 2012 in advance of the redevelopment of one of the key sites investigated in 1981–2, Pudding Lane (PDN81), a new archaeological investigation revealed that significant archaeological deposits and structures survived, corroborating the results of the earlier excavation.

SAXON, MEDIEVAL AND POST-MEDIEVAL EXCAVATIONS AT THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS CENTRE BUILDING, HOUGHTON STREET, WESTMINSTER, LONDON WC2 Sarah Ritchie and Ian Hogg. Fieldwork on the site of a new London School of Economics and Political Science building revealed evidence of middle Saxon activity, followed by a long period of abandonment. The site was not reoccupied until the 17th century as part of the transition of this area of Aldwych from agrarian fields to a high status suburban residential area, which by the Victorian period had become a slum.

A RECONSIDERATION OF THE CONTEXT OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR’S TWO LONDON CIVIC CHARTERS AND SOME RELATED DOCUMENTS Bruce Watson. The dramatic events leading up to the defeat of the English and the death of their king Harold II in October 1066 at the Battle of Hastings are the subject of the new BBC tv drama King and Conqueror. However, it is sometimes forgotten that William Duke of Normandy’s victory at Hastings did not immediately win him the throne of England. He was not crowned until Christmas Day 1066 as the City of London (already England’s largest and richest urban centre) initially refused to accept him as king. Therefore, William was obliged to undertake a campaign to compel London to surrender. Immediately after the City had surrendered William collectively punished its leading citizens by seizing and then selling back to them their port facility. This transaction has only been recently identified by reconstructing the text of a lost London charter. This identification is significant as William I (1066–87) only granted two civic charters both to the City, demonstrating its wealth and commercial importance.

‘OF ONE NAME AND LYGNAGE’: LEGACY, STATUS AND SELF-PERCEPTION IN THE COSTANTYN FAMILY OF LONDON, 1280–1505 Adele Sykes. The Costantyn family of London represents a rare example of enduring lineage within the city from the late 13th to early 16th century. Their story reveals how urban families could establish lasting heritage and status over several generations within a rapidly evolving medieval city, and offers insight into themes of citizenship, heritage, commemoration and the dynamics of lineage preservation in later medieval London.

EXCAVATIONS AT 415 WICK LANE, TOWER HAMLETS, LONDON E3: THE REDISCOVERY OF THE MEDIEVAL RESIDENCE OF GISSING PLACE Ian Hogg with Sarah Ritchie. During the 13th century a substantial hall house known as Gissing Place (among other names) was constructed here. The hall was enlarged in the later medieval period then replaced in the early 16th century by a larger dwelling. Contemporary ancillary structures included a malt house. In 1863 the house was apparently destroyed by fire.

A LATE 18TH-CENTURY ICEHOUSE AT PARK CRESCENT WEST, THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER, LONDON W1B Daniel Harrison. Until the advent of mechanical refrigeration in the late 19th century, commercial icehouses supplied homes and businesses with blocks of ice to help prolong the life of perishable food stuffs and for chilling alcoholic drinks in the summer and producing exotic desserts such as ice cream. This large subterranean (9.6m deep) brick-built ice house was constructed in the 1780s or 90s and went out of use during the mid-19th century. Following the removal of 20th-century infill it was recorded prior to sympathetic restoration.

THE EXAMINATION OF THE EARLY 19TH-CENTURY STATUE OF KING ALFRED, TRINITY CHURCH SQUARE, SOUTHWARK, LONDON SE1: FOLLOWING CLEANING AND CONSERVATION WORKS Chris Constable. Since about 1828 a statue of King Alfred has stood outside Trinity Church. Recent conservation work has established that the upper portion of the image is Coade stone and the lower part Bath stone. It appears that the lower portion was originally part of a Roman statue of the goddess Minerva, which the sculptor James Goerge Bubb cunningly reused.

Volume 75 also contains a number of book reviews: The Brewers’ Book; City within the City; Wider Goldsmiths’ trade; Bricks of Victorian London: a social and economic history; London: a history of 300 years in 25 buildings; Liberty over London Bridge; Early Roman waterfront development: excavations at Regis House, City of London, 1994–96; Monumental London; Norton Folgate; Southwark Fire Court; Lost Gardens of London; The Local History Prize: Medieval Morden volume 3 by Lorraine Woodleigh; St Botolph Aldersgate Churchwardens Accounts; Early Ceramic and Stone Toy Marbles from the Thames Foreshore in London; Bermondsey Square, Prehistoric and Roman Settlement, Medieval Abbey and Post-Medieval Mansion excavations 1998–2018; St Stephen’s Chapel and the Palace of Westminster; Building accounts of St Stephen’s Chapel 1292–1396; Wanstead House, English Heritage guide.

In addition, this volume contains the annual reports produced by the Society’s Council, its various committees and accounts.