AOC Archaeology Group

AOC Archaeology have been commissioned by Greene King to carry out a historic building record at the George Inn, Southwark during refurbishment works. The inn is a Grade I building owned by the National Trust, and leased by Greene King. The building has many literary associations, from the Canterbury Tales (late 14th century), whose characters left on pilgrimage from an adjacent tavern ‘The Tabard’, to Shakespeare (Henry IV Part 2); the building also features in Dickens’ ‘Little Dorritt’.

The George is the only surviving galleried coaching inn in London, and dates to 1676. The present hostelry replaced an earlier inn on the site, dating to the medieval period. The galleried section is the only surviving part of a three sided inn enclosing a courtyard; two sides were lost at the end of the 19th century to redevelopment. The remaining building still has much of its 17th century aspect, despite various phases of rebuild, repair and refurbishment throughout the intervening years.

Borough High Street was home to in the region of 23 of coaching inns in the medieval and early post-medieval periods. The only crossing of the Thames for London was London Bridge, so Borough High Street became the terminus for passengers and goods travelling from the south. This busy trade brought a higher population and money as a result of which Southwark became the entertainment district for Londoners of all classes. Entertainments of all sorts were to be had, from theatre visits to the Globe, bear baiting at Bear Gardens, through to the services of a prostitute. Much of the 17th century aspect of Southwark changed in 1676 with a great fire, which raged for 17 hours, before houses were blown up to create fire breaks. The George dates to this year. Visitors to the George will be used to a busy pub redolent with historic character and crowded with customers.

The refurbishment of the George started on the 27th June, and archaeological recording of the exposed historic fabric has concentrated on the attic space, and minor alterations to the east end of the bar. The examination of the attic reveals a space rarely seen; here we can clearly see the different phases of the building. There seems to be at least three structural events apparent in the attic. The western end of the attic, above the balconied area has a simple collar beam roof with purlins. The second phase is adjacent to this, and has extra rafters giving the roof a flare. The third event is a modern roof; it appears that the eastern end of the inn was rebuilt in the 1930s.

The attic is divided into individual rooms with partitions of lath and plaster; these are most likely of late 17th or early 18th century. The plaster over the laths is worthy of retention by its very age.

There are two elements in the attic that are interesting to the archaeologist and the social historian alike. The main staircase to the attic is a modification to the original form; we can see saw marks on a joist that align with saw marks on a group of floorboards, showing that the boards were cut where they lie to create a new entrance. The second point is the presence of small entrances within the wooden doors of the attic, clearly an early form of cat flap.