The big dig: archaeology and the Jubilee Line Extension

Abstract

• Between 1992 and 1998 the £2.76 billion Jubilee Line Extension Project was the largest civil engineering project in Europe. Running through Westminster and north Southwark, it traverses some of the most archaeologically sensitive areas of London, ending up at Stratford on top of a medieval abbey. The tunnels for the Jubilee line are themselves so deep that they pass well below any archaeological remains. However, since by its nature a tube tunnel lies deep underground and the people who want to use it live on the surface, there has to be a myriad of holes connecting both levels. The new ticket halls, the sinking of escalator shafts, ventilation shafts, grouting shafts and escape shafts, the diversion of countless services, the construction of new buildings and the underpinning of existing ones all have the potential to uncover an important fragment of the past history of London, whether it is a Neolithic arrowhead from Westminster, a Roman building under London Bridge station or a medieval monks' cemetery at Stratford. London Underground fully realised the archaeological potential of the Extension and commissioned archaeological investigations wherever groundworks were due to take place along the route. The Museum of London Archaeology Service dealt with the stretch of the Extension between Westminster and North Greenwich, and managed the Newham Museum Service and Oxford Archaeological Unit on the remaining part to Stratford between 1992 and 1998. The full results of the excavation programme will be published in due course. In the meantime, this booklet briefly describes the archaeological remains uncovered during the construction of the Jubilee Line Extension.