1 Wood Street/120 Cheapside (CPD04)

Clients: Land Securities plc and Bovis Lend Lease Ltd

Author: Sadie Watson

Site supervisor: Sadie Watson

Between June and December 2005 MoLAS carried out extensive excavations on behalf of Bovis Lend Lease and Land Securities at 120 Cheapside/1 Wood Street in advance of complete redevelopment of the site. Because of the anticipated survival of considerable quantities of archaeological deposits beneath the existing basement slabs, the scheme involved significant mitigation and excavation was only required in trenches for some 30 or so large pile caps and ground beams. These were nevertheless quite large, ranging in size up to 5 metres square.

The natural ground consisted of brickearth above compact terrace gravels. The topography seems more level than expected, given that on adjacent sites there have been marked variations and deep natural watercourses cutting the gravels. There has been no evidence for the presence of palaeochannels or large marshy areas such as were seen at nearby excavations to the west and the east.

Across the entire site cutting into the natural there were shallow features, such as ditches and postholes, possibly associated with ephemeral occupation activity during the early years of the Roman city (c AD 50). The ditches could represent land boundaries, the postholes possibly part of temporary structures or shelters. In one trench there was some potential evidence of small-scale industrial activity in the form of metal-working debris. In another trench was a deep ditch running downhill (to the south), lined with timber planks and probably relating to early drainage of the site.

To the south of the site, along the main east-west Roman road beneath Cheapside, lay firm evidence of permanent occupation. Two trenches contained clay-and-timber building stratigraphy, consisting of clay brickearth floor slabs interleaved with silty occupation layers containing domestic debris. In the corner of one trench part of a mosaic floor was uncovered, consisting of a black and red border with white and grey tesserae decoration. Mosaics dating to the 2nd century AD have been found at Milk Street to the east and Gresham Street to the west and the site may be within an area of reasonably high-status occupation (three stamped procuratorial tiles [PR B LON], have been found perhaps hinting at the presence of a public building in the area). These buildings seem to have been destroyed in a fire during the first quarter of the 2nd century AD. There was no evidence of later Roman rebuilding. Across the whole site lay a deep deposit of black silt, probably deposited in the 3rd or 4th centuries AD and possibly used by the Romans for agricultural purposes.

The black silt was cut by many later features including several deep pits from the Saxo-Norman period (1050-1100/50), as shown by pottery such as imported Ardenne wares, Stamford wares and early medieval sandy wares. Later medieval remains consisted of large, deep, square-cut chalk and ragstone foundations, probably relating to buildings along Milk Street. There was also a set of greensand steps within chalk walls leading down to a medieval cellar - unfortunately beyond the limits of the trench.

See also reports in Conservation and Media

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2005: annual review