The working life of Museum of London

Two trenches were excavated at Waite Street,  Burgess Park, Southwark. The difference between the two trenches reveals how the area developed over time. Trench 1 revealed a mid-Victorian house built to a high standard whilst Trench 2 exposed a later Victorian house built under completely different conditions. Some Roman pottery (Samian ware) was also found in the Trench 2 which gives us information about the earlier use of the whole site.

Maps from 1746 show the area of the excavations was used for market gardening. Vegetables needs fertiliser, – so every night a great supply arrived from London in the form of human waste matter, politely known as ‘night soil’. Other debris was also thrown in to this mixture, including the sherds of Roman pottery which have been found. Other historical periods are represented by finds such as a medieval roof tile complete with peg hole and a 17^th century clay tobacco pipe with a small bowl. The size of the pipe bowl is the clue to the period in which it was produced – tobacco at this time was rare and very expensive.

Trench 1 revealed pottery which was decorated and of good quality and some fine cut glass-ware was found indicating a respectable residential area. As London expanded and became more prosperous, the fields of vegetables had evolved to become a desirable mid-Victorian residential area. Evidence of this can found in the house uncovered in trench 1. The streets around the site also reflect the popularity of Lord Nelson after the battle of Trafalgar e.g. Nile Street and the Lord Nelson pub on Trafalgar Avenue. The houses were three-storey with a sub-basement.

The nearby Surrey Canal with its easy access to the port of London ensured that, later, the growth of major industry would move to the area. At this point, the residents of the mid-Victorian houses such as that exposed in trench 1 moved away and the houses were occupied by the families of those who worked in the increasing number of factories, for example, the R.Whites lemonade factory. The house revealed in trench 2 relates to this period.

London was attacked by the world’s first ballistic missile, the V-2 rocket (in German Vergeltungswaffe 2 which means Vengeance weapon 2) in 1944. The devastation from the 13 tonne rocket, which impacted at over 3000 miles an hour without warning, was catastrophic. There was no warning because it travelled faster than the speed of sound. Survivors only heard the sonic boom after the blast. At 10am on St Valentine’s Day 1945 our site at Burgess Park was hit by a V2 bomb. The area had been targeted because of the industry located here and the canal which was used by German bombers as a landmark leading to the city of London.

Our dig has provided evidence of the evolution of the area now occupied by Burgess Park which was created from the bomb site. The dig has shown that at the time the houses were destroyed by the bomb, both the mid- and late-Victorian houses, as represented by the archaeological remains in trenches 1 and 2, were occupied by people working in the local factories.

 Today Burgess Park is a green and peaceful park enjoyed by the local community who now have a window to the past through the findings from this dig. It was very enjoyable to meet local residents who came down to look at the dig and tell us their stories of the past including the photographs they brought with them. A whole new generation of the local community was also represented by the school children who came to help, some of whom want to become archaeologists.

Sylvia and Jo