Roman Southwark settlement and economy

Abstract

• This report presents an overview of Roman urban development in London south of the Thames. The establishment of the Roman bridge and the first approach roads and landing places made Southwark an ideal location for the development of facilities for the trans-shipment of goods between land and river. A wide range of data from 41, previously unpublished, north Southwark sites provides the means for ‘mapping’ Roman activity in Southwark – an early trading settlement and later administrative centre, contracting by the mid 4th century AD to the area around the bridgehead – and documenting changing patterns of land use and broader processes of social and economic change.