Development on Roman London’s western hill: excavations at Paternoster Square, City of London

2006

Redevelopment allowed reassessment of 1960s work and review of Roman activity on the western hill south of the main east–west road. Evidence of pre-Roman drainage towards the Fleet valley was overlain by the main road and external activity dated to c AD 50. Pre-Boudican strip buildings lay along the main road and secondary roads, whilst pottery and other finds hint at a military presence, perhaps within a civil context. Roads and properties were re-established after the Boudican fire and included residential, commercial and industrial activities. More substantial post-Hadrianic buildings were set back from the roads but overall activity declined in the later Roman period, with burials cutting a disused secondary road, and external areas including evidence of animal husbandry and bread wheat preparation.

Monograph Series 32