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Professional archaeologists have been working in the city of London, and revealing its secrets, since the early 1970s. This book celebrates more than three decades of discovery and draws on research and excavations carried out by the Museum of London Archaeology Service. With hundreds of photographs, maps and plans, this volume presents a thematic overview of London's history covering a number of important sites and finds. Chapters explore the landscape and topography of the city, London's rivers and especially riverfront, its infrastructure of streets, bridges, sewers, railways and the underground, trade and industry in the city, domestic housing and everyday life, entertainment, religion and the disasters that befell the city including fire and disease. A fascinating insight into London's hidden history.
The story of London's Clerkenwell and Smithfield neighbourhood, from prehistory through to the present day, is illustrated by archaeological investigations undertaken as part of the Crossrail Central development. Excavation showed how, from being on the margins of the city, this area was occupied by religious houses and a cattle market, before developing into a densely packed suburb as London's population exploded. Charterhouse Square was known to be the site of the West Smithfield cemetery, one of two London emergency burial grounds established during the Black Death (1348-9); the 25 individuals excavated are the first large group of burials recovered. The plague pathogen was identified in skeletons from each of three phases of burial, indicating that these were the victims of multiple plague outbreaks from the Black Death into the 15th century. Also located as it flowed west into the Fleet was the Faggeswell brook - the southern boundary of the plague cemetery and of the monastic precinct of the London Charterhouse, founded in 1371. This massive ditch had been filled in the mid 17th century with rubbish and waste from the livestock market and nearby households, some evidently wealthy.
In this vividly descriptive short study, Peter Ackroyd tunnels down through the geological layers of London, meeting the creatures that dwell in darkness and excavating the lore and mythology beneath the surface. There is a Bronze Age trackway below the Isle of Dogs, Anglo-Saxon graves rest under St. Pauls, and the monastery of Whitefriars lies beneath Fleet Street. To go under London is to penetrate history, and Ackroyd's book is filled with the stories unique to this underworld: the hydraulic device used to lower bodies into the catacombs in Kensal Green cemetery; the door in the plinth of the statue of Boadicea on Westminster Bridge that leads to a huge tunnel packed with cables for gas, water, and telephone; the sulphurous fumes on the Underground's Metropolitan Line. Highly imaginative and delightfully entertaining, London Under is Ackroyd at his best.
Georgian London evokes images of elegant mannered buildings, but it was also a city where prostitution was rife and houses of ill repute widespread in a sex trade that employed thousands. In London's Sinful Secret, Dan Cruickshank explores this erotic Georgian underworld and shows how it affected almost every aspect of life and culture in the city from the smart new streets that sprang up in Marylebone, to the squalid alleys around Charing Cross to the coffee houses, where prostitutes plied their trade, to the work of artists such as William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds. Cruickshank uses memoirs, newspaper accounts and court records to create a surprisingly bawdy portrait of London at its most-mannered and, for the first time, exposes its secret, sinful underside. "A lively work of social history, full of surprises and memorable characters." - Kirkus Reviews
incAn original, authoritative survey of the archaeology and history of Roman London. London in the Roman World draws on the results of latest archaeological discoveries to describe London's Roman origins. It presents a wealth of new information from one of the world's richest and most intensively studied archaeological sites, and a host of original ideas concerning its economic and political history. This original study follows a narrative approach, setting archaeological data firmly within its historical context. London was perhaps converted from a fort built at the time of the Roman conquest, where the emperor Claudius arrived to celebrate his victory in AD 43, to become the commanding city from which Rome supported its military occupation of Britain. London grew to support Rome's campaigning forces, and the book makes a close study of the political and economic consequences of London's role as a supply base. Rapid growth generated a new urban landscape, and this study provides a comprehensive guide to the industry and architecture of the city. The story, traced from new archaeological research, shows how the city was twice destroyed in war, and suffered more lastingly from plagues of the second and third centuries. These events had a critical bearing on the reforms of late antiquity, from which London emerged as a defended administrative enclave only to be deserted when Rome failed to maintain political control. This ground-breaking study brings new information and arguments to our study of the way in which Rome ruled, and how the empire failed.
Often seen combing the shoreline of the River Thames at low tide, groups of archaeology enthusiasts known as 'mudlarks' continue a tradition that dates back to the eighteenth century. Over the years they have found a vast array of historical artefacts providing glimpses into the city's past. Objects lost or discarded centuries ago – from ancient river offerings such as the Battersea Shield and Waterloo Helmet, to seventeenth-century trade tokens and even medals for bravery – have been discovered in the river. This book explores a fascinating assortment of finds from prehistoric to modern times, which collectively tell the rich and illustrious story of London and its inhabitants.
Critical Perspectives on Cultural Memory and Heritage focuses on the importance of memory and heritage for individual and group identity, and for their sense of belonging. It aims to expose the motives and discourses related to the destruction of memory and heritage during times of war, terror, sectarian conflict and through capitalist policies. It is within these affected spheres of cultural heritage where groups and communities ascribe values, develop memories, and shape their collective identity.
On the south bank of the Thames, outside the jurisdiction of the ancient City of London, Bankside has long been known as a hotbed of creativity, dissent and loose living. With its brothels and bear-pits, its prisons and its pubs, the area has inspired the nation's greatest writers - Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Keats and Blake - and been home to its most famous theatres - the Globe, The Rose, The Old Vic and the National. These same south London streets have given sanctuary to immigrants and refugees, to tradesmen, craftsmen and Thames Watermen, to the workhouse poor and the criminal underclass. Writer, performer and local historian John Constable is well known for his walks around this fascinating area. The eight walks collected here are among his most popular. Packed with social history and local lore, they are witty, insightful and hugely entertaining. Each walk is easy to follow, accompanied by maps and clear directions, and illustrated with period prints and contemporary photographs. Together, they tell the extraordinary and, until recently, largely forgotten story of London's anarchic, irrepressible 'Outlaw Borough'.
When Roman troops threatened to seize the wealth of the Iceni people, their queen, Boudica, retaliated by inciting a major uprising, allying her tribe with the neighbouring Trinovantes. The ensuing clash is one of the most important - and dramatic - events in the history of Britain, standing testament to what can happen when an insensitive colonial power meets determined resistance from a subjugated people head-on. In this fascinating account of a legendary figure, Miranda Aldhouse-Green raises questions about female power, colonial oppression, and whether Boudica would be seen today as a freedom fighter, terrorist or martyr.