568a Roman Road, Bow, London E3 (ROB05)

Clients: Quadrillion Construction Ltd on behalf of Toynbee Housing

Author: Johanna Vuolteenaho

Site supervisor: Johanna Vuolteenaho

MoLAS was called in to carry out preliminary archaeological investigations (evaluation) at 568A Roman Road in advance of plans for a new housing development. Work took place between May and September 2005. Three trial trenches were excavated, the largest of them being c 4m by 10m. The evaluation produced considerable evidence of Roman activity on site.

The earliest phase of historic occupation may relate to gravel quarrying for the construction of the Roman road from London to Colchester. These layers also contained evidence of agricultural land use, presumably as a pasture land for livestock. The second phase relates to construction and subsequent use of a substantial roadside building. Further phases relate to demolition of these buildings, changes in land use and boundaries, as well as construction of a gravel alley-way or side road leading to the main Roman road. The final phases relate to the land being reverting to agricultural use.

In addition, the archaeological works have provided information on the natural topography and the occupation of the site in the pre-Roman Iron Age as well as evidence of later post-Medieval garden deposits and features.

The evaluation (and later excavation carried out under the mitigation phase) demonstrated for the first time the existence of high status Roman buildings in the area. Some of the building material recovered clearly derives from the demolition of a nearby building with hypocaust heating, and fragments of Purbeck marble suggest high quality flooring. The relative high quantity of late-Roman pottery recovered from the site also raises a number of questions about the development of late-Roman London and its surrounding areas.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2005: annual review