Tabard Square

It was a rather damp day.

Set into the paving surface of the modern development of Tabard Square is this copy of an inscription found during the excavations of the Roman temple complex.  The inscription in interesting, and, even my rather terrible photograph shows, the very clear reference to London – ‘Londiniensi’.  What this may mean is that Southwark, despite being outside the walls, and different in character to the walled city, was considered to be part of London.

Recently the Museum of London has published the Roman Map of London which is a major survey of the archaeology of this period.  The link will take you to the online shop where it can be purchased.

Wireless Problems

Finally I have been connected to the world again!

More on Fenland

The Council for British Archaeology (click here to join) have written a response to the Council Leader’s speech.  Find it here.

Something not based in Southwark.

Sometimes councillors make very silly decisions.  I think, you can tell, from the title of the linked article that some councillors are not friendly to archaeology and like development.  This is a simple matter of compliance with planning guidance, as issued by the government.

PPS5 is the government Planning Policy Statement, Planning for the Historic Environment, which governs how archaeology, listed buildings, locally designated heritage assets, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens and battlefields are dealt with and considered in planning applications.  For Scheduled Monuments and Listed Buildings there are also other statutes governing processes.  Compliance is not an option.  If you choose to ignore planning guidance the decisions issued by the council will not be secure and shall be open to high court challenge.  A few bills from m’ learned friends will help make minds up.

Bollards!

This bollard stands at the end of ‘Nancy’s Stairs’ on Tooley Street, next to the arch of the surviving abutment of the 1832 rebuild of London Bridge.  Yes, despite my terrible photograph it does say ‘City of London’.  What this bollard is doing here is a mystery.

Quite a lot of the 1832 London Bridge survives.  This bridge was built to the west of the line of the medieval and Roman bridges.  These two bridges ran on an alignment across the river to the church of St Magnus the Martyr, from adjacent to the, now demolished, church of St Olave on the south bank.  On the riverside walkway along the south bank there is a viewing platform and lighting set into the ground showing the location of the bridge and road.

The building of the 1832 bridge changed the north end of Borough High Street.  The road shifting to the west, from Bedale Street northwards, led to the construction of new buildings between Borough High Street and Green Dragon Court, the demolition of chapels to the east end of, what is now, Southwark Cathedral.  The buildings between Borough High Street and Green Dragon Court have just been demolished to make way for Thameslink – the latest transport change.

The 1832 bridge also was at a higher level that its predecessor so the abutment rose in height to bring the roadway in at the higher level matching the rising ground at the City end of the bridge.  This height has been maintained for the modern bridge.

So to the north and south of Tooley Street, the raised abutment is part of the 1832 bridge.  The granite balustrade can be seen in the streetview image before the City griffin (hiding behind the fingerposts).

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Roman Burials – continued

If you zoom out on the map you will notice that more burials have been added.

Blue signs are for inhumation burials

Red signs are for cremations

Green signs are for later roman burials

If the sign contains a dot the burial site is well located, if it is blank the burials are located only by street.

Subject to the problems the Heritage Gateway appears to be having at the moment work is progressing.

Roman Burials in Southwark

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I have started work on plotting the locations of Roman cemeteries in the area of the Borough north of the New Kent Road.  In the future I will be adding earlier sites to this map, hopefully with the magic of Google these should start to fill in more gaps.

I have included the Harper Road Lady, one of the earlier ‘Roman’ burials in the area and potentially a focus for burials.  The site to the north – the Pickle Factory – contained late, potentially post-Roman burials.  At the Pickle Factory there was evidence that a number of landscape divisions may well have been visible bounding the cemetery to the south separating the burials from the area of the Harper Road Lady.

South and east at the Symington House site two groups of burials were identified with different characteristics, layouts and organisation.  These groups were separated by ditches, and the cemetery appears to have been bounded to the west by landscape features roughly in line with Harper Road.