Excavations at 72-75 Cheapside/83-93 Queen Street City of London

Abstract

This area, at the junction of modern Cheapside and Queen Street, lay in the western half of the Roman city and in the commercial centre of late Saxon and medieval London. The site straddled the major east–west Roman road across the city and a sequence of timber buildings fronting on to the road illustrates the speed and vigour of urban development in Londinium up to c AD 120. The outlines of the modern street system were established by the late 9th century and occupation is evident from the early 10th century – a series of timber buildings, succeeded in the late 11th by stone buildings. Queen Street dates from after the Great Fire of 1666. Saxon ‘tree-wrightry’ and tool kits are examined.