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City Wall at Vine Street: DUA archaeologists in historic return to Crosswall
Ian Blair
Tuesday evening saw the celebration and unveiling of the City Wall at Vine Street, which I wrote a related post about in recent times: http://digginglondon.org.uk/shadows-in-time-crosswall-revisited. It was fantastic to rub shoulders once again with three of my former DUA colleagues Cath and John Maloney, and Dom Perring.
Remembering a fallen ‘hero’: Chris Fenn (1958-2022)
Ian Blair
Chris and his new life in Canada in 1992 with his daughter Camille on his shoulders and nephew Tom at his side. Tom is sister Julie Flude’s son. Julie was also a fellow DUA archaeologist. Photo: Julie Flude
‘DUA Pizza’: in memory of Brian Hobley
Ian Blair
Life is often very circular it seems, or perhaps it is simply the way that my brain functions and the things that I perceive and the way that I process them. On Friday 8th December I was wandering along Hoe Street the main street in Walthamstow, an area that I and countless archaeologists past and present have set up home in over the years: due to the fact that it was once relatively affordable.
Shutters come down on MOLA photographic:
Maggie & Andy leave the building after long exposure
Ian Blair
Today was Andy Chopping’s last day at MOLA with Maggie Cox having left in recent weeks, both opting to take voluntary redundancy following the latest downturn in work and pursuant financial belt-tightening across the organisation.
‘The truth is out there’: if you dig deep enough!
Ian Blair
Somewhat unexpectedly my recent post about the departure of Andy Chopping, Maggie Cox, and Dave Sankey from MOLA, led to a case of mistaken identity and a mystery as to who featured in a photo taken on Regis House (KWS94) in 1994.
‘Reaching for the sky’: the pioneering aeronauts of the DUA
Ian Blair
In the formative early years of the DUA, most notably on Trig Lane (TL74), the ability to gain altitude to take aerial photographs was a problem that was overcome in a variety of ingenious, if now deemed ever-so-slightly unsafe ways.
‘Three strikes and we are out’: unionism and activism in London archaeology
Ian Blair
Forty-five years ago on the 30 April 1978, an estimated 100,000 people including archaeologists from the Department of Urban Archaeology (DUA) took part in a march from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park co-organised by ‘Rock Against Racism’ and the ‘Anti-Nazi League’, which culminated in a concert headlined by the Clash and Tom Robinson.
Planning for the future: GPO delivers discarded post after forty-five years
Ian Blair
Whilst attending ‘The Great Museum of London Reunion ’ at London Wall in December 2022, I got talking to fellow archaeologist Toria Standfield from Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA), who had recently concluded their excavation along the west side of the former General Post Office site on Newgate Street (GPO75).
‘Shadows in time: Crosswall revisited’
Ian Blair
The ‘City Wall at Vine Street’ is the newest museum to open in the City of London and features a substantial extant section of the Roman City wall and the foundations of an adjoining extramural bastion: City Wall at Vine Street.
‘Life is Fleeting’: mentioned in despatches at the Fleet Valley
Ian Blair
With the recent passing of Friederike Hammer I found myself looking at a copy of the Fleet Valley Project Interim Report published in May 1993 that she had given to me a year ago.
‘Inflated view from a balloon over Gutter Lane’
Ian Blair
The group of photos that follow this post were taken on Gutter Lane (ABC87) in 1988, soon after the up to then ‘missing’ amphitheatre had been formally identified on the Guildhall Art Gallery (GAG87) site.
Raiders of the Lost Amphitheatre
Ian Blair
Judging by the photos, the summer of 1987 was a very good one!
At that time, I was working on the Guildhall Art Gallery site (GAG87) supervised by Nick Bateman: the remains of the Roman amphitheatre yet to be found.
Radio Carbon: looking for cover at Lloyds
Ian Blair
The splendid cartoon by Marietta Ryan depicting Brian Hobley in one of the small trenches in the Lloyds Insurance Building (LLO78), was clearly intended to grace the front cover of an issue of Radio Carbon, but sadly was never used. So, a mere forty-four years on (a mere blink of an eye in archaeological terms!) it finally makes its somewhat belated premiere on Hobley’s Heroes & Digging London.
Spoof memos, pranks, and ‘chocolate moose cake’: fun and games in the DUA Finds Section at the Museum of London
Ian Blair
Sometime in the early 1980’s whilst living in Haringey, near-neighbours Jo Groves and Natalie Tobert, Penny MacConnoran’s colleagues in the DUA Finds Section at the Museum of London, came around and gifted her a pot plant with an amazing vibrant orange flower springing from the centre of its lush green foliage.
‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars’
Ian Blair
Sunday 4th December 2022 saw the closure of the Museum of London after a tenure of forty-five years, having first opened its doors at London Wall in December 1976: to mark the event, the Museum threw ‘The Great Museum of London Reunion’ aimed at bringing together all staff, past and present, to celebrate the museum and its achievements:
The Milk Street Jewish Ritual Bath or mikveh: the most culturally significant structure found on an archaeological excavation in the City of London
Ian Blair
With the excavation of the massive Roman wells and their bucket chains completed on 20-30 Gresham Street, I found myself working with a small team of archaeologists through the summer months in the Stygian gloom of the basement and former gold bullion vault of the State Bank of India at 1-6 Milk Street, on the west edge of the site.
'The Fallen: rediscovering a lost generation'
Ian Blair
In August 2018 I wrote a short post ‘The Fallen: remembering a lost generation’ which detailed a journey I made to a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at St Amand in France, to mark the 100th anniversary of the death in World War One of my Great Uncle George William Alfred Blair.
‘Does an angel contemplate my fate, and do they know, the places where we go, when we're grey and old’: the young archaeologists of Paternoster Square
Ian Blair
During the summer of 1978 when the majority of the DUA archaeologists were engaged on the excavation of the GPO Newgate Street site (GPO75), we would frequently utilise the wide-open windswept spaces of Paternoster Square across the road, for a variety of outdoor recreational pursuits.
Sunflowers and Polyspans
Ian Blair
Calverts Buildings, 15–23 Southwark Street, SE1 (15SKS80)
Looking at this photo evoked some random thoughts on polyspans and horticulture on archaeological sites in the period: It was good to see that the DGLA in common with the DUA employed the same weighty iron frame polyspans on site.
‘I keep saying another metre and that will be it, but I said that 2m ago’: The excavation of the massive Roman wells and their bucket chains at 20-30 Gresham Street
Ian Blair
In 2001 a film crew followed the nine-month long excavation at 20-30 Gresham Street (GHT00), also known as Blossoms Inn, for a Time Team Special ‘Londinium, The Edge of Empire’ which aired a year later in April 2002: