Student placements at St Paul’s (SCP04)

Author: Nick Bateman

Between September and October MoLAS carried out a five-week evaluation at St Paul's Cathedral. A team comprising three professional archaeologists was led by Senior Archaeologist Robin Wroe-Brown. Because of the nature of the site, which was not subject to the usual hazards of City development with machinery and/or other contractors, the opportunity was taken to involve several volunteers in the excavation and recording process as part of a training exercise. Archaeology students from University College London and Cambridge University participated — many thanks therefore to Tamsyn Challenger, Nicole Taylor and Guy Thompson.

Access paths and gardens on the south side of the cathedral are to be re-landscaped in the near future, and the remains of the medieval chapter house and cloister which survive c 1m beneath current street and garden levels were uncovered for detailed survey, recording and photography, prior to decisions on the precise nature of future work. Remains included two of the massive central piers, parts of both the internal and external cloister walls, and quite a large stretch of the paved floor of the cloister. This was the first sizeable part of the pre-Wren cathedral to see the light of day for nearly 150 years.

The re-landscaped gardens will eventually incorporate the layout of the medieval remains, although it is likely that all surviving masonry will be reburied to avoid complications with long-term conservation in the open air.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2004: annual review