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1973: the Birth of the DUA
Gustav Milne with Christine Harrison (Milne)
The ground-breaking Museum of London brought together the collections and expertise of the former London Museum (founded 1911) and the City’s own Guildhall Museum (founded 1826). It formally opened in December 1976, but with great sadness, closed its doors for the last time in December 2022.
A DAY in the LIFE: Trig Lane, 1974
Gustav Milne
Leaving Home
Gustav got up, got out of bed and stretched. Since the head of the bed butted against the low kitchen cabinet, it was not a long walk to the kitchen sink to clean teeth, or to the outside loo.
There was no bathroom in this cramped and damp Victorian basement: all the tenants on each floor had to use the public bathhouse down the Cally, the Caledonian Road.
Now for Something Completely Different:
Custom House 1973 CUS73
Gustav Milne
The amalgamation of the London and Guildhall Museums was long in the planning, but only formally completed in the summer of 1975. Consequently from late 1972, the Guildhall Museum had to shoulder the burden of rescue archaeology in an increasingly redeveloped City during the transition period, and it rose to the challenge.
A Café on a Bridge PEN/PDN 1979-82
Gustav Milne
Once upon a time there was a café on a bridge. But it was not just any café, and it certainly wasn’t just any bridge. The cafeteria in question was Joe’s, 127 Lower Thames Street at the junction of Fish Street Hill in the City of London. It played differing roles in a major multi-site multi-period archaeological project running from 1979-1982.
Common Markets: Leadenhall Court LCT84-6
Gustav Milne
Running up that Hill
Pretend you'd crossed London Bridge in the late 2nd century and were heading north up the main road to the crest of Cornhill.
Tales of the Unexpected: Thames Exchange TEX88
Gustav Milne
Looking in the Wrong Place
The Billingsgate Lorry Park excavations had top billing in the DUA calendar for 1982-3. It was seen as the last major waterfront excavation in the City, and its deep and well stratified waterfront deposits would finally resolve that nagging continuity question of Roman/Saxon interface.
Every Picture Told a Story:
a Christina Unwin Retrospective
Gustav Milne
If memory serves, Chris Unwin walked onto the Baynard's Castle site in June 1975, taking a break from her studies at UCL.
She proved a proficient and ever cheerful archaeologist, but her other skills also attracted the attention of the DUA's Drawing Office.
Archaeology in the City of London: an end and a beginning 1972-6
Gustav Milne
PART ONE- A CASTLE AND A CRISIS
Although the Museum of London closed in December 2022, its remarkable archaeological legacy remains.
A Thames Tug of War
Gustav Milne
“Did I ever tell you my Dad worked on a Thames tug in the war?” No she hadn’t. What follows is as much of his story as can be pieced together, 80 years later.
Bombing London: 40 years on
Gustav Milne
We know that the systematic scientific study of our City’s past began after the Blitz with Professor Grimes and his dedicated work on bombsite after cheerless bomb site.
A Baker’s Boy in Pudding Lane
Gustav Milne
One of the few dates in English history that every school person knows is “1666: the Great Fire of London”. Over some five days and nights, that conflagration destroyed over 13,000 houses, St Paul’s, 87 parish churches, Guildhall, Custom House and many thousands of pounds-worth of goods stored in shops and warehouses (“of which the City was at that time very full”)
Discovering an Unsung Hero of the London Blitz:
but who was Sir Thomas Peirson Frank?
Gustav Milne 14/04/25
In May 2025, the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, the Post Office will issue a new set of stamps, the VICTORY & VALOUR collection.