The working life of Museum of London

Welcome back…

Work continues a pace as we approach the final three weeks of the excavation period,  So do our minutes hasten… (Sonnet 60).

Last week we welcomed a new member to the team, Dave Saxby, whose insights and vast experience will be invaluable to our understanding of the site.

Of nuns and beer – a brief history from the holy to the profane…

Up until the mid 12^th century, the area of the site here would have been just fields.  Previous archaeological excavations in the area immediately surrounding The Theatre have found no substantial evidence for Pre-historic, Roman and Saxon occupation.

This all changed in the 1150s with the founding of the St John the Baptist Priory.  Our colleague, Hana Lewis excavated the Priory Church as a part of the nearby East London Line excavations in 2007.  An article about that dig appeared in the latest issue of London Archaeologist (the periodical covering history, heritage and archaeology in London, follow this link for more information: http://www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk/). 

In its four hundred year history the Priory was the ninth richest in Britain and held sizable tracts of land and like other religious establishments of its type, it was mostly self sufficient.  Britain’s Priories were usually equipped with barns for storing crops raised on their lands, mills to grind the corn, cellars, dairies orchards and sometime vineyards.  Our site lies entirely within the precinct walls of Holywell Priory and directly over some of the buildings west of the main complex that would have provided the nuns with their daily bread and beer. 

Map of Holywell Priory

On this map of the Priory, created in the nineteenth century from historical records, the buildings that would have occupied our site are listed as a bake house and a brew house on the left (west) side of the Great Court and above (north) of the pond.

Bread has always been a staple and before modern piped water infrastructure, drinking beer was safer than drinking water (the brewing process effectively sterilises the drink), this was especially true in built up environments like the rapidly expanding Tudor London, where ground water and wells could easily become contaminated.  The beer in question wasn’t always the strongest of ales as we may know them today.  More frequently consumed was small beer, which was weaker and made from a second fermentation of malt that had already produced the more intoxicating first brew.

When the Priory was dissolved in 1539, its lands and remaining buildings were split up and sold and by 1576 the area including our site was in the possession of one Giles Allen who sold a 21 year lease to James Burbage and his business partner and brother in law John Brayne to build and operate The Theatre.  As Burbage (and more of him anon) appears to have been a canny business man, he would clearly have seen the advantage of some on site catering to extract a few more pennies from his punters.  The later Bankside theatres such as The Globe and The Rose were known to have dedicated tap houses for their catering needs and just as The Theatre served as the prototype for the playhouses it is not inconceivable that our brew house served as a pragmatic re-use of an existing build for the prototype tap house.

Would I were in an alehouse in London!  I would give all my fame for a pot of ale… (Henry V. III. i. 13)

Black glazed red ware pottery

Historically we know that the brew house and bake house complex survived the dissolution and were rented out at least in part as tenements, but it is also likely that they continued their original purpose.  We have evidence, in the form of black glazed red ware pottery, in a form that is traditionally associated with brewing and beer drinking.  This pottery is contemporary with The Theatre, likewise the pottery fragment with the bearded gentleman design mentioned in our first blog posting; he was found crushed into the theatre yard – home to the groundlings!  What would be more natural than to share a pint or two with ones friends when one comes to see a show. 

Photograph of brew house wall

We have now found the back wall of the medieval brew house building and on initial inspection it seems we now have hard evidence for its survival through the dissolution.  It seems that the later Tudor builders were not averse to a little recycling as demonstrated by the discovery of a remnant of an inserted stone floor made of a green sandstone called Reigate stone.  This was probably taken from one of the Priory buildings as they were being demolished. 

Dave Saxby cleaning the re-used stone floor

The photo of Dave shows him cleaning this re-used stone floor; the stone just below his left knee has a rounded moulding carved around its edge and an oval groove cut into one side.  These carved elements indicate that the stone was formerly used as a decorative architectural feature, probably the top of a small column or pair of columns.  The find resembles some of those found by Hana in the Holywell Priory church. 

Hana visits our site to see the Priory stonework

We are currently analysing the finds from this area and hope to update you as soon as we know if they back up our current ideas, or whether we will have to form an alternative hypothesis.  In this game you are only as good as your last hypothesis and if the evidence doesn’t support it, you have to re-don the thinking cap, formulate another and rigorously test it against new data.

O! there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly…(Hamlet III. ii. 1)

As a part of the Tower Theatre Company’s fund raising campaign (http://www.thetheatre.org.uk/index.htm), last week the actors Paul McGann and Susannah Harker performed scenes from Midsummer Night Dream and Romeo and Juliet upon the very ground where four hundred years ago, the same words were enacted before an equally rapt audience.  

Suzannah Harker and Paul McGann on site

From historical records we know that Romeo and Juliet was premiered here at The Theatre and with James Burbage’s son Richard in the lead role.

There seems to be more than just a little serendipity surrounding this place and as archaeologists we feel a sense of privilege to be a part of this project that completes the circle from stage to stage.

Next time…

• Some of the characters who once populated this space
• Echoes in the landscape
• Exciting new developments, the latest finds and their implications

Links:

London Archaeologist: http://www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk/

Tower Theatre Company: http://www.towertheatre.org.uk/

Tower Theatre Company, the new theatre: http://www.thetheatre.org.uk/index.htm

Footage of the 2009 evaluation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=savcpQFVu8w

MOTCO UK directory and image database, antique maps, prints and books: http://www.motco.com/default-Markou.asp

Museum of London: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/english

Museum of London Archaeology: http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/English/

Ben Crystal: http://www.shakespeareontoast.com/