Excavation of A Roman Bath House, Shadwell
At the site of the former Babe Ruth Restaurant, 172-6 The Highway, Tower Hamlets, London E1.
Peter Moore
Until recently little was known about the extent of Roman activity in the Shadwell area.
A road called The Highway runs through the area and is thought to be Roman in origin. A
large square Roman masonry structure found in the 1970's was interpreted as a military
signal tower. Because of the nearby inhumations this has been reinterpreted as a possible
mausoleum. Excavations by Pre-Construct Archaeology to the west at Tobacco Dock in 2002
showed the presence of field boundaries parallel to The Highway, terracing supported by
large timber revetments and some clay and timber buildings. From July 2002 to February
2003 PCA undertook an archaeological investigation at the former Babe Ruth Restaurant
site, in between the above two sites, for Wimpey Homes. A single Roman ditch found towards
the north of the site links up with one excavated south of the tower but as with the
northern part of the Tobacco Dock site the northern part of the Babe Ruth site had been
severely truncated by basements.
However deep ground raising deposits over a series of terraces cut into the southerly
sloping natural gravels to the south of the site preserved the remains of a group of Roman
buildings. At a depth of circa 5m below present ground level a substantial stone, brick
and tile bath-house with at least two phases of construction was uncovered. Measuring
circa 19m N-S by 16m E-W only the northern limits of the building have been established as
rooms continued beyond the western, eastern and southern limits of excavation. The earlier
phase consisted of a grid of rooms, with at least eight rooms identified including an apse
on the northern side. This building seems to have had both hot rooms, with a hypocaust,
and unheated rooms. Some of these walls were then partly demolished, the new rooms built
and the hypocaust system extended over a greater area with at least nine rooms. The two
phases of occupation took place between at least the 2nd to 4th centuries with the
systematic stripped of all flooring and demolition taking place shortly after 400AD. This
building, together with associated deposits will be preserved in situ beneath the new
development.
To the north of the building lay an area of packed gravel and stone surfaces, probably
representing a yard. Immediately to the west of the yard, and on a perpendicular alignment
to the bath house was a sequence of eight phases of clay and timber buildings. The
continuous raising of the floor levels in these buildings produced an well dated sequence
of artefacts including pottery, coins and hair pins. Jewellery from these buildings
included a gold and glass necklace and a gold and emerald earring. The finding of a wealth
of finds, buildings and the spectacular bath-house marks the beginning of a new look at a
substantial Roman settlement at Shadwell and at questions as to its relationship with the
contemporary city of London.
|
