Regent and Grove Wharves, Lombard Road, Battersea
TQ 2660 7620; (Stuart Holden); evaluation and excavation; 10- 21 June 2002 and 24 July 2002; LMA02
Five trenches were excavated across the site during the evaluation phase. Sandy gravels were recorded at a maximum height of 3.69m OD.
Located within the trench between the electrical sub-station to the S, and a modern
warehouse to the N were the remnants of brick and Reigate stone walls, which included a
vaulted E-W brick cellar. The earliest part of this structure was built between 1450/80
and the 1640's. The cellar wall, with six arched niches built into the top, formed the N
wall of a roughly square room, with the southern and most of the western wall having been
truncated away by a large pit. The eastern wall had purposefully been removed to allow
enlargement which occurred between 1640 and 1700. The building was also extended during
this period to the W and S, at ground level only, and may represent the L-shaped building
shown on Roque's map of 1747. To the N of this building a second basement was found. This
was also constructed of brick and built between 1450/80 and 1700. The walls of this
cellar, however, were greatly damaged and showed signs of repair through out the 18th
century. The western terminus of an E-W running ditch and a pit were recorded along the
eastern edge of the site. Pottery found within both of these features were primarily
residual but included a sherd of coarse borderware with red slip dated to 1340-1500. It is
likely that the ditch once formed a property boundary.
In the SE corner of the site the external corner of a building was found. The brick wall ran from the western limit of excavation and returned to the N. A large cut (likely to be for two outlet pipes visible in the river wall) truncated the return. The external side of the returning wall had been faced with squared green sandstone blocks. Unfortunately the external face of the E-W running wall had been truncated by a ceramic waste pipe. The brick fabric was dated to between 1450/80 and 1666/1700.
Throughout the 18th century the second basement showed signs of repair form earlier damage. The northern wall had been completely replaced, probably at the same time as the ground floor was extended to the W. This extension formed a single building which, probably towards the end of the 18th century, was levelled by fire. Within the fill of the cellar was a large quantity of burnt timber and charcoal, building rubble and highly vitrified glass bottles. Below a layer of building rubble, within the extension, a burnt timber floor surface was found.
Below the burnt floor, a layer of made-up ground was removed to reveal a circular brick structure with an associated linear wall running to the S. This may have been a malting kiln for a small-scale distillery in the 17th century. It was truncated by approximately 50% to the N by a large wall forming part of the Chemical Works shown on the 1894 OS map.
19th century basements were recorded to the N. close to the riverside and foundations dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries were recorded across the site.
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