Roman and Medieval Development South of Newgate : Excavations at 3-9 Newgate Street and 16-17 Old Bailey, City of London

"Excavations at two sites on the south side of Newgate Street, near Newgate, have revealed important new evidence of London's Roman and medieval development. A natural stream channel recorded at 3-9 Newgate Street flowed south-west to join the River Fleet. Early Roman activity was represented by quarrying, a laying-out ditch associated with the main Roman road leading west from the settlement, and overlying phases of roadside timber buildings. To the west at 16-17 Old Bailey there was no evidence of 1st- or 2nd-century buildings, but traces of a roadside cemetery, quarrying and rubbish pits." "A large masonry foundation was built near the road frontage at 3-9 Newgate Street, just to the east of the position of Roman Newgate, some time after c AD 140. Truncation makes interpretation difficult. It has been suggested that the foundation might be the southern end of a monumental arch predating the city defences, but its conjectured dimensions and apparent design make this unlikely. Other possibilities include a base for a roadside structure such as a shrine, tower, funerary or commemorative monument. A channel or ditch to the southeast of the foundations followed the earlier stream course but was infilled during the 2nd century AD, perhaps in anticipation of the building of the city defensive wall in c AD 200, which would have crossed the stream to the north. A later Roman drainage system may have carried water south-east and south to the Thames. A 3rd-century masonry building lay to the south of the backfilled stream. After the construction of the defensive wall, activity at 16-17 Old Bailey, now outside the city, declined." "The area was abandoned after the Roman period, when the stream may have reasserted itself until infilled in the late 11th century. Medieval rubbish pits and masonry building foundations were recorded at both sites."--BOOK JACKET.