It was a dreary November day and I stood in the middle of an urban wasteland, recalls Chiz Harward. Behind me lay Bishopsgate and the City of London, in front of me was Spitalfields Market. It was 1998, I had just turned 25, and it was my first project as a supervisor for MOLA. As I stood with colleagues in the drizzle, waiting for the digger to be delivered, the scale of the project was immediately apparent.
London’s Spitalfield Market excavations were, in many ways, without parallel. Within this massive ten-acre site, vast swathes of lost London were revealed. Some of the results are well known, having featured in the pages of this magazine and on television. The earliest evidence consisted of an extensive Roman cemetery, within which we found the now-famous stone sarcophagus with its decorated lead coffin containing the remains of a woman (CA 162). From the late 12th century, Spitalfields became home to the medieval Augustinian priory hospital of St Mary Spital and its precincts (from which the area takes it name). Within its grounds, we excavated the remains of almost 11,000 people – achieving what is believed to be the largest archaeological excavation of a cemetery in the world (CA 270).
However, it is the post-medieval period (1539-1880), the subject of our latest volume, that is perhaps the least known of the ‘three periods’ so far published – despite being the most immediate and information-rich. For the first time we can draw not only on the excavated stratigraphy and artefacts, but also on a wide range of historical documents, including contemporary maps (see box on p.36), land-leases, and water-colours. Binding together this extensive range of evidence offers new insights into the past, and sometimes even tantalising glimpses of the very individuals who once lived on the site. In this way, we have revealed not only the physical development of Spitalfields from the Dissolution onwards, but also an intimate social history of the site.
Living among ruins