Thomas Soane's Buildings Near Billingsgate, London, 1640–66
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Post-Medieval Archaeology 43/2 (2009), 282–341 Thomas Soane’s buildings near Billingsgate, London, 1640–66 By JOHN SCHOFIELD and JACQUELINE PEARCE with IAN BETTS, TONY DYSON and GEOFF EGAN SUMMARY: Excavations at Billingsgate in the City of London in 1982 uncovered extensive remains of the 17th-century buildings of Botolph Wharf. Changes to the structures, and an excep- tionally rich array of artefacts datable to 1620–66 (the Great Fire of London), are attributable to the tenancy of Thomas Soane, grocer, and later of his widow. The artefacts and buildings demon- strate differing domestic and warehouse uses just before the Fire, and complement the documentary record. When taken with plan evidence from the Treswell surveys of c. 1612, the excavations prompt discussion of how warehouses fitted into the configuration of buildings in the pre-Fire City. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH guilds in London in the 14th century.3 Men from SETTING the Pepperers or Grocers were elected mayor several times in that century, though not as often as This paper arises from archaeological excavations members of some other companies such as the undertaken in 1982 on the site of Billingsgate Lorry Drapers, Mercers and Fishmongers.4 In the 1420s, Park, adjacent to the Billingsgate Fishmarket it has been calculated, there were at least 102 men building in Lower Thames Street in the City of running grocery businesses in the City. Grocers London (TQ 32960 80659; Fig. 1). The excavations dealt in spices, medicines and dyes, all imports, and found remains of a 3rd-century Roman waterfront both in the medieval period and the 17th century and 10th- to 13th-century timber waterfronts.1 prominent members of the Company also had The analysis and publication of the medieval and import and export businesses. In the 15th century post-medieval buildings above these structures is at least one owned a ship; in the 1460s wealthy in progress.2 grocers who were also aldermen exported wool on The paper describes an investigation into one a large scale. Others exported cloth and animal feature of the 17th-century development of the site skins. When special companies were formed to — rebuilding work undertaken on Botolph Wharf develop areas of foreign trade in the later 16th from the 1620s up to the Great Fire of 1666 — and century the Grocers took part, especially in the its proposed association with a grocer, Thomas Muscovy Company, which was founded in 1555. Soane. These are placed in context in the port They no doubt played a prominent part in exports, of London in the 17th century, a time of great especially re-exports. For instance, the chief gro- change. ceries exported to the Baltic in English vessels in In the opening decades of the 17th century the the period 1565–1615 were sugar, currants, pepper, grocers were one of the most important and power- figs, ginger, rice, dyes, indigo, cloves, dates, saffron ful retail groups in the City of London, and had and nutmegs.5 By the 1640s there was a distinct been for several centuries. As Pepperers they had merchant establishment in the City of London formed some kind of association in the late 12th which controlled the import business and ran much century, and as Grocers were one of the earliest of the City.6 © Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology 2009 DOI: 10.1179/174581309X12560423035038 282 BILLINGSGATE, LONDON 283 FIG. 1 The Billingsgate site in Lower Thames Street, City of London, with (inset) the City of London within Greater London (drawn by Carlos Lemos). In the 1550s London accounted for about the bridge; they remained so until the end of the 90% of the total export of cloth from England as 18th century. measured by customs duties; by 1604 it produced The great range of imports to London and the 91% of the country’s export duties on all com- many merchants involved are documented in the modities.7 This ascendancy, amounting almost to London Port Book for 1567/8.8 The story of a monopoly on exporting and probably on import- the Primrose of Milton in Kent, its master Henry ing businesses, came at a time of reorganization of Church, illustrates how aspects of the port worked; the waterfront. according to the accounts the ship was of either In 1559 Botolph Wharf was named as one 60 or 80 tons. During the year 1567–68 it made of the Legal Quays of the Port of London (i.e. the four voyages from Antwerp to the city, bringing prescribed zone where custom would be paid cargoes of great variety. The London merchants on exports and imports); most of the 24 named who imported goods in the ship were predominan t- quays were between London Bridge and the ly grocers, mercers and clothworkers, but also Custom House, but three including the Steelyard leathersellers, girdlers and occasional representa- were above the bridge. The stretch downstream, tives of other lesser trades. In the second voyage, including Botolph Wharf, was in effect the Elizabe- which arrived in London on or shortly before 10 than Port of London for overseas trade. The Legal February 1568, 40 merchants were involved.9 The Quays were redefined after the Great Fire of 1666 ten grocers among them concentrated on spices, and were then confined to the north bank east of hops and soap, but also imported other items. 284 JOHN SCHOFIELD AND JACQUELINE PEARCE Unfortunately we do not yet know where these colonial expansion had brought little or no net grocers lived, nor on what wharves the commodi- increase in markets for English produce’.14 The ties were landed.10 Some of the importers probably archaeology of the American colonies is showing, had their houses and warehouses inland, away by contrast, that ordinary objects of everyday from the riverfront. use found their way from England, and probably The names of most merchants involved in the largely via London, to the east coast of the United four voyages of the Primrose in this year differed States from about 1610, and in large numbers. with each trip, but one or two were involved in In her study of material culture and consumer more than one voyage. Roger Warfild had another behaviour in Britain in the century after 1660, cargo when the Primrose docked on 14 August Lorna Weatherill made the point that ‘the expecta- 1568: two barrels of treacle, 3cwt of white lead, tions and lives of people in the commercial sector 6cwt of red lead, 20cwt of sumach [dried and led them to be more interested in innovation and in ground leaves used in tanning], 24cwt of hops, varied domestic goods’. She further suggested that 150lbs of gum, 20cwt of liquorice, 21cwt of prunes, ‘these were the forerunners of the middle classes, three barrels of litmus, 75lbs of turmeric, 3cwt of noted in later periods for their materialism and fenugreek [a plant whose seeds were used medici- their elaborate domestic interiors’.15 We can nally and to make a yellow dye], and 1½cwt of attempt to see how far the particular archaeologi- candy [crystallized sugar].11 cal finds from Billingsgate might illustrate these By the 1620s imports such as raw silk, cur- tendencies in the generation before 1660. rants and East Indian spices, particularly pepper, The excavation of 1982 was carried out in the were monopolized by merchants of the Levant north-west corner of the available part of Billings- Company (formed by a merger of the Venice and gate Fishmarket lorry park, a large open area Turkey Companies in 1592) and the East India on the west side of the 19th-century fish market Company (founded 1600). London’s imports were building. It thus lay over the pre-Fire and later roughly the same by origin of country and value 17th-century Botolph Wharf, which historically in 1621 as they had been in the 1560s. In 1622 comprised two blocks of land with a lane between, north and north-west Europe contributed 63% of which had been pushed out into the river in stages London’s imports by value, southern Europe of reclamation from the 10th century. The parish and the Mediterranean 31%, and America and church of St Botolph Billingsgate occupied the Asia only 6% between them. There was a surge of north, street-side end of the western block. An imports (especially sugar and tobacco) from alley or lane down its east end gave access to the America and Asia after about 1650, so that in the wharf; this ran roughly down the middle of what period 1663–69 the comparable figures were 45% was known by the 17th century as Botolph Wharf. from north Europe, 31% from south Europe, and The congested character of the area, immediately 24% from America and Asia. At this later period downstream from London Bridge, is also shown in much was re-exported, 87% of the re-exported Hollar’s Long View panorama, published in 1647, goods going to continental Europe. The percent- which was based in part on sketches of the 1630s ages by value of the main commodities being (Fig. 2). imported also changed; though textiles were the main commodity in 1622 and 1663–69, sugar and tobacco had risen from only 2% in 1622 to 10% in BOTOLPH WHARF AND THOMAS SOANE 1663–69.12 The Muscovy Company (also known as the Russia A new factor was the colonies, and particu- Company, the merchants of the Russia House, larly America. The peak period of emigration or the Company of the merchants of Muscovia for to America was 1630–60. Virginia also provided a the Discovery of New Trades) had evolved in 1555 place of refuge for at least one London merchant from attempts to fi nd a north-east passage to the fleeing his creditors, though few important City East.