AOC Archaeology Group

London’s Transport Museum situated in busy Covent Garden needed to expand to refurbish the museum shop and increase gallery space. The museum wanted to achieve this by extending their existing basement to underneath the ‘Covered Way’, a late 19th century Grade II listed structure that had originally been built to house part of the Covent Garden flower market. This had latterly been used as the museum café and also contained several old London buses. This development involved a deep excavation of almost the entire footprint of the listed structure. The Covent Garden area is within the former location of the Middle Saxon settlement of Lundenwic, stratified remains of which have consistently been found within deep excavations in this area. Desk-based research and limited evaluation pits and borehole monitoring allowed a deposit model to be built up for the site, which indicated that there were Saxon archaeological deposits sealed beneath the remains of 17th-18th century cellars of buildings that have formerly occupied the site in a c. 4m deep sequence.

AOC Archaeology Group designed a programme of work to allow the archaeological remains to be excavated, while the necessary temporary works were put in place to ensure the safety and integrity of the structures that bound the site. This included carrying out an archaeological watching brief during piling operations, having input into spoil removal plans and planning the sequence of operations. AOC Archaeology Group worked closely with Wates Construction throughout the project to manage the operations to achieve this aim.

The earliest features revealed were nine cremation and two inhumation burials. Preliminary dating of the cremation vessels places them between AD 550 and 650. This makes them not only the first cremation burials to be found in Lundenwic but also the only burials in Lundenwic dating to the Early Saxon period.

Although most of the cremation vessels had been damaged by later activity, two were recovered completely intact. Most of the vessels were made in chaff-tempered wares and were rounded, with slight variations in profile. As well as molten glass and copper alloy fragments, which were probably remains of goods burned on the funeral pyre, one vessel contained an ornate metal object, either a pair of tweezers or a small girdle holder with intricate decoration.

One of the two inhumation burials was aligned east/west and had been truncated at both ends by later deposits. A silver disc brooch set with four cut garnets backed by gridded foil was discovered in the well that truncated the head end (west) of this burial and was probably originally interred with it. Several other grave goods were retrieved from the burial itself, including a necklace comprising approximately 19 amber beads, a glass bead typical of the mid to late 6th century AD, and a complete shield-on-tongue buckle. The second inhumation burial was aligned north/south and did not contain grave goods.

The burials are clearly of great significance. Previous evidence from the area had suggested that activity in Lundenwic might have occurred in the 6th century AD. This discovery not only supports that theory, but also gives new clues to the extent and status of the settlement in its formative phases.

By the early to mid 7th century AD the area of the site was abandoned as a burial ground, probably as a result of the settlement of Lundenwic expanding in a northerly direction. The site was used for settlement activity and occupation with evidence for structures, pits, wells, midden deposits and gravel surfaces until some time in the late 8th to the mid 9th century AD.

The Saxon deposits were truncated by the remains of substantial late 17th and 18th century basements and their associated features. The structures in the southern half of the site correspond with the layout of the site detailed in a lease plan of 1795, denoting the area as being occupied by 32-34 Tavistock Street.

The final agreement of the analysis of the evidence recovered will enable the condition of planning consent for the site to be fulfilled.