The Roman riverside wall and wharves at Three Quays

Summary

A succession of Roman quayside structures and a Roman riverside wall built between the 1st century and 3rd century surviving as buried remains. The area covered by the Roman quayside structures also includes several medieval wharves and associated features surviving as buried remains.

Reasons for Designation

The site of Three Quays, Lower Thames Street, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Historic importance: the Roman quays and riverside wall hold particular historic significance for their association with the origins and development of England’s capital city, the establishment and operation of the port, and the nature of the city’s defences;

* Survival: this part of the Roman quayside has been shown to survive relatively well as buried remains, as have the medieval waterfront structures on this site, including some timber structures, which demonstrate an exceptional level of preservation for organic remains;

* Documentation (archaeological): this part of the Roman riverside wall and port has been recorded through archaeological excavation, providing important information regarding Roman and medieval civil engineering and construction techniques, as well as archaeological deposits relating to the quayside;

* Rarity: Three Quays is one of only four such sites currently known where the Roman riverside wall has been confirmed to survive and remain in-situ;

* Potential: the Roman riverside wall and Roman and medieval quayside retain a high degree of archaeological potential for further investigation, which will provide valuable insights into the construction of the wall and the history of the port;

* Group value: this site shares group value with the other surviving sections of the riverside wall at Riverbank House, Sugar Quay, and The Tower of London, as well as with the scheduled sections of London Wall, and a number of scheduled monuments relating to Roman London, such as Queenhithe dock (Schedule entry 1001994).

History

The port of Roman London (Londinium) was established from the mid-1st century, which led to the construction of a succession of wharves, revetments and docks on the north bank of the River Thames over the course of the next two hundred years. The river foreshore was 100m further inland than it is today; currently beneath buildings next to Upper and Lower Thames Street. The Roman quays built between the late 1st century and 3rd century gradually advanced southwards to create space for warehouses and dockside facilities and also to accommodate a gradual drop in the river level; the quays had to expand into the river to remain usable. Perhaps most notable among these quays, was a heavily built and sophisticated Roman ‘box quay’ constructed in about the mid-2nd century. It was formed of a series of caisson-style boxes built of very substantial timbers which have been found to survive exceptionally well. The box quay is indicative of a major investment in the Roman dockside infrastructure during this period. In the later 3rd century, the fortunes of the Roman port significantly changed with the construction of the Roman riverside wall (see below). This seems to have severed the connection to the quayside, which was no longer maintained, indicating that protection of the city now took priority over river trade.

The landward Roman defensive wall is now known as London Wall. It was constructed as part of an extensive programme of Roman public works. The wall was, until recently, considered to have been built between about AD 190 and AD 225, pre-dating the riverside wall, but subsequent analysis of dendrochronological data has led to the suggestion that both structures were built at the same time, in the later 3rd century, although this is not yet certain (Sheldon 2010 cited in Mackinder 2015, 11). The landward wall was about 3km long and enclosed an area of nearly 330 acres. It served to form the basis of the protection of the town far into the medieval period and was also a key factor in determining the shape and development of both Roman and medieval London. The uniformity of design and construction of the wall suggests that it was planned and built as a single project. London Wall was built on a foundation of puddled clay and included a rubble core interspersed with bonding tile courses. It is known to have stood to a height of about 4.4m above a sandstone plinth and was surmounted by a parapet walkway. Excavation has indicated that defensive bastions were subsequently added to the wall.

The Roman riverside wall was built during the later 3rd century, connecting the south-east and south-west extents of the landward city wall. The wall is thought to have been built to the rear, or on the rear, of the earlier riverside revetments. It broadly ran just to the south of the current line of what is now Upper and Lower Thames Street, and has been identified at eight separate sites: Baynard’s Castle, St Peter’s Hill, Riverbank House, Seal House, New Fresh Wharf, Sugar Quay, Three Quays House and The Tower of London (Wood 2019). It is currently (2022) known to survive in-situ on at least four of these sites: Riverbank House, Sugar Quay, Three Quays, and The Tower of London. In contrast to the landward wall, there was considerable variation in the construction of the riverside wall. At Baynard’s Castle, the wall was recorded as having a foundation of Kentish ragstone blocks rammed into London Clay. The superstructure of the wall on part of this site was recorded to 2.2m high and built of ragstone interspersed with occasional tile courses. It incorporated culverts to enable water to drain southwards into the river. There were later repairs with large sculptured stones from a monumental arch and an ornamental screen. On the sites of Riverbank House, Sugar Quay and Three Quays House, the riverside wall was built with a foundation of five rows of oak piles supporting a chalk raft. The wall above this was variously constructed from monumental reused Roman stonework, including numerous door jambs, or from rubble. Partial excavation at the Tower of London has uncovered a late section of the wall, that differs from the piled sections, and was built 4m to the north of the earlier riverside wall. The existing river wall may have still stood at this time and this later wall may therefore represent some form of strengthening or a platform.

Following the decline of the Roman Empire, permanent settlement within the walls of the Roman city appears to have largely ceased between the end of the 4th century until the late 9th century (Hill 2015). However, by the 7th century a nucleated settlement known as Lundenwic had developed on the north bank of the Thames to the west of the abandoned Roman town. This was an undefended trading post or emporium. The return to the Roman town, where the defensive walls were still standing to a considerable height, was a result of Viking attacks which caused Lundenwic to become untenable (Ibid). In AD 886 King Alfred ordered the reoccupation and fortification of the former Roman city through the establishment of a burgh. The riverside defences were repaired and harbours were established at Queenhithe, Dowgate and Billingsgate, which may have been where gaps in the Roman riverside wall occurred; Thames Street later developed in the C11 probably to link these wharves. The Roman riverside wall was eroded by the river, although the construction of embankments to make good the gaps in the riverside wall did occur in some places. The eastern waterfront of the city was radically altered from 1078 by the construction of The Tower of London. The principal route along the medieval waterfront was Thames Street which marked the base line for subsequent encroachment south into the river. Several quayside structures are recorded in this area in the medieval period. The Great Fire of London in 1666 damaged much of the waterfront as far as the Tower, but rebuilding was swift, and the subsequent arrangement of the quays lasted with relatively little modification until Second World War bomb damage and post-war redevelopment (Ibid).

The site known as Three Quays, Lower Thames Street, was partially excavated through small-scale evaluations in 1995, 1996 and 2002, and more substantial excavations in 2010 to 2012, following the demolition of a 1960s office building on the site and its replacement with an apartment block. These revealed a succession of Roman waterfront structures, as well as the Roman riverside wall of the later 3rd century. One of the piled foundations of one of the Roman quays included re-used timbers from a large cornice and/or pediment assembly of a building, which according to the excavation report were deemed ‘very rare and are thought to be unique in Britain’ (Hill 2015, 17). There were a succession of at least 36 medieval quayside structures, largely formed of timber revetments as well as a C14 river wall, followed by two river walls built in the C17 and C18. The first historical record of a quay on the site is a deed of 1374, which names Sir John Acres as the owner and lists the property as ‘a quay with a house, with one cellar, built over the gate to the aforesaid quay with two shops adjoining the east side of the gate’ (Ibid, 9). By 1465, the property had been amalgamated with its eastern neighbours as ‘that great tenement…vulgarly called Marwes Newe Keye…’, named after its owner and builder William Marwe, a grocer and alderman of the City (Ibid). The quay seems to have been composed of the great tenement and four smaller tenements nearer the river. By 1499, it had been renamed Galley Quay, possibly due to the Genoese galleys which offloaded there. The antiquarian John Stow states that in 1603 the merchants houses on Galley Quay ‘...hath fallen to ruin, and been let for stabling of horses, to tipplers of beer and such like’, remarking that one of the alehouses, run by one Mother Mampudding, seemed to be built by shipwrights since the building was lined with overlapping clapboards attached by shipwrights nails (Ibid). After the Great Fire of 1666, three quays were established on the site (from which the site gained its current name): Galley Quay, Chester’s Quay and Brewer’s Quay. In about the later C18, a two-storey range was erected against the river front, probably a holding area for unloaded goods, whilst fronting onto Thames Street were basemented warehouses. The site suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War and was redeveloped with an office block in the 1960s, latterly replaced by an apartment block in 2014.

Details

PRINCIPAL FEATURES
A succession of Roman quayside structures and a Roman riverside wall built between the 1st century and 3rd century surviving as buried remains. The area covered by the Roman quayside structures also includes several medieval wharves and associated features surviving as buried remains.

DESCRIPTION

Roman quayside structures
A succession of Roman quays and revetments were built on this site, which previously formed the North foreshore of the River Thames. Partial excavation uncovered at least seven Roman quayside structures with the extent of many of these structures continuing beyond the limits of the trenches. The earliest structure was only partially uncovered but included six timber piles and a number of horizontally laid timbers. It was succeeded by an east-west aligned quay formed of horizontally laid beams, which was recorded for a length of about 35m in various forms of preservation. One of the piled foundations of this quay, included very rare re-used timbers from a large cornice and/or pediment assembly from a building. In around the mid-2nd century it was replaced by a new quay, projecting 4.5m further south into the Thames, formed of baulks surviving up to 2m high and found to have originally been more than 8m deep. It was extended to the west in the later 2nd century and to the east with a double-planked revetment, which itself was later re-faced. In around AD 215, a north-south aligned single-plank revetment supported by oak piles was built. Further remains of these Roman quayside structures and revetments survive beyond those revealed in the pile and excavation trenches (where they were largely not retained in-situ); the extent of the structures was shown to continue between and beyond the limits of the trenches.

The Roman riverside wall
A length of the Roman riverside wall constructed in the later 3rd century survives on this site. It is built of a foundation formed of timber piles supporting a chalk raft upon which the stonework of the wall was originally laid. It was recorded to survive as high as the chalk raft. Further remains of the Roman riverside wall survives beyond those revealed in the pile and excavation trenches.

Medieval wharves and associated features
The area covered by the Roman quayside structures also includes several medieval wharves and associated features. Partial excavation uncovered a group of three quayside structures dating to between about 1130 and 1240, including two north-south orientated revetments partly built re-using clinker boat boards. In about the mid-C13, there was a succession of four post and plank revetments, whilst between 1270 and 1350 no less than 14 quayside structures were constructed. Additional timber revetments and associated structures were built in the C14 and C15. Further remains of these medieval wharves and associated features survive on the site beyond those revealed in the pile foundations and excavation trenches.

EXCLUSIONS
The modern building of Cheval Three Quays is excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath is included. All modern pavements, street or road surfaces, railings, lamps or lamp posts, bollards, pipes, drains, cables and services are also excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath these features is included. The HM Tower of London liberty boundary marker is Grade II-listed (List entry 1393921) and also excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath is included.

Sources

Other
Brigham, T and Hillam, J, ‘The Late Roman Waterfront in London’, In Britannia, Volume 21 (1990), 99-183.
Hill, J, Three Quays, 50 Lower Thames Street, London EC3: Museum of London Archaeology Post-excavation assessment (2015)
Mackinder, A, Roman and medieval revetments on the Thames waterfront: Excavations at Riverbank House, City of London, 2006-9 (2015)
Tatton-Brown, T, ‘Excavations at the Custom House Site, City of London, 1973’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Volume 25 (1974), pp 117-145
Watson, S and McKenzie, M, Sugar Quay, Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6DU: Museum of London Archaeology post-excavation assessment and updated project design, unpublished report (2018)
Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions UK, Roman Riverside Wall Information Report, Unpublished report (2019)

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