MIDDLE SAXON AND LATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS IN WHITEHALL Paw Jorgensen With contributions by Jonathan Butler, Kevin Hayward, Chris Jarrett and Kevin Rielly SUMMARY Guards Road to the west, the Embankment to the east, Parliament Square to the south Archaeological investigations undertaken during the and Great Scotland Yard to the north (Figs streetscape improvements in Whitehall revealed the 2, 2a, 2b). Bordering upon the site are remains of several periods of activity. Middle Saxon governmental offices, mostly dating to the activity most likely associated with that previously late 19th and 20th centuries, many of which found at the Old Treasury Building in the 1960s was are Listed Buildings. In total 78 Listed revealed on Whitehall opposite the west end of Horse Buildings are located immediately adjacent Guards Avenue. Elsewhere masonry associated with to the site; of these, 14 are Grade I listed, York Place, the Archbishop of York’s official residence 17 Grade II* listed, and 47 Grade II listed; in London, and Whitehall Palace was found. Later these include Queen Mary’s Steps, the Ban- remains consisted of buildings which were constructed queting House, the Ministry of Defence in the 18th and 19th century following the destruction Main Building, and the Cabinet Office, Privy of Whitehall Palace in two fires at the end of the 17th Council and Treasury Building, all of which century. to varying degrees have incorporated part of the fabric of Whitehall Palace into the INTRODUCTION current buildings and structures. Furthermore, the entire site lies within the Pre-Construct Archaeology was commiss- Lundenwic and Thorney Island Area of Spec- ioned by Atkins Heritage acting on behalf ial Archaeological Priority and immediately of the City of Westminster to undertake a to the south is the World Heritage Site of watching-brief during streetscape improve- Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and ments along Whitehall and the adjoining St Margaret’s Church (WHS number 462). streets (Fig 1). The work was undertaken St James’s Park to the west and Victoria between May 2007 and October 2010. This Embankment Gardens to the east are both report presents the results of the archaeo- Registered Parks and Gardens; the former logical monitoring, which was carried out Grade I and the latter Grade II*. during the excavation of 99 trenches. The site The watching-brief recorded in one of archive will be deposited with the London the deeper trenches, along Whitehall itself, Archaeological Archive and Research Centre a number of pits and a palaeochannel of (LAARC) under site code WQH 07. Middle Saxon date, whilst across the invest- The site was centred at National Grid igation area a number of structural remains Reference TQ 3015 7996 and can best be pertaining to Whitehall Palace as well as defined as the streets lying between Horse fragments of buildings pre- and post-dating 57 58 Paw Jorgensen N GREATER Waterloo LONDON Trafalgar Charing Cross Bridge Square Station The Site ST. JAMES Old War Office RIVER THAMES Road THE Guards SITE The Mall London Horse Eye 529200/179800 520850/179800 HM Treasury Westminster Bridge Houses of Parliament Westminster Abbey 0 500m Fig 1. Site location Figure 1 Site Location the royal residence were observed. Pre- Strand, is postulated to have passed1:12,500 north at A4 of palace structures recorded included part the site somewhere in the vicinity of present of the kitchen and Great Hall of York Place day Trafalgar Square. The road covered the while the post-palace remains are mainly c.7 mile stretch between Ludgate in the east foundations of buildings associated with and Hammersmith in the west (Margary the redevelopment of the area in the 18th 1957, 51). and 19th centuries. However, due to the It has been suggested that a river crossing limited depth of the majority of the trenches lay to the south of the site, near where the vast majority of the deposits excavated Westminster Abbey stands today. While the related to the recent installation of services alignment of Watling Street does suggest and post-medieval levelling of the ground in this location for a crossing point, there is at preparation for the construction of today’s present a lack of physical evidence to support Whitehall (Fig 3). this theory (Sloane et al 1995, 369). Roman finds have been recovered from the vicinity, HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL namely on Thorney Island to the south. BACKGROUND Saxon Roman The study area is situated approximately 1km Little evidence for Roman activity has been south-west of the Middle Saxon (c.AD 650— discovered by previous work within the area 850) settlement of Lundenwic. Even so, many and most of what has been recovered has of the previous archaeological investigations consisted of redeposited material. However, carried out in the vicinity of Westminster the Roman road Akeman Street, which Abbey have recorded residual Middle Saxon approximately followed the alignment of the material and excavations at the Old Treasury Middle Saxon and Later Archaeological Remains in Whitehall 59 N 530150/180235 WHITEHALL PLACE WHITEHALL Old War Office Horse Guards HORSE GUARDS Parade AVENUE Banqueting House Gwydyr House Ministry of Defence Main Building ROAD GUARDS A HORSE Foreign and Commonwealth Office KING CHARLES STREET VICTORIA EMBANKMENT STREET HM Treasury PARLIAMENT Westminster Underground Station GREAT GEORGE STREET B 0 530150/179670 100m Fig 2. Whitehall streetscape trench location plan Figure 2 Trench Location 60 Paw Jorgensen Trench 57 N Trench 63 Trench 61 Trench 62 WHITEHALL PLACE WHITEHALL Old War Office Trench 60 Trench 35 Trench 53 Trench 54 Trench 55 HORSE GUARDS Trench 59 AVENUE Trench 44 Trench 58 Trench 35 Trench 99 Trench 18 Banqueting House Trench 56 Trench 52 Gwydyr House Ministry of Defence Trench 51 Main Building Trench 46 Trench Trench 36 47 Trench 31 Trench 49 Trench 48 Trench 41 Trench 39 Trench 35 Trench 50 Trench 40 Trench 38 Trenches 64-98 Trenches 0 50m Trench 42 N Fig 2a. Trench location detail (northern section) Figure 2a Trench Location Middle Saxon and Later Archaeological Remains in Whitehall 61 a land grant made in AD 785 by King Offa of Trench 42 N Mercia to St Peter’s of Westminster (Sawyer 1968, no. 124), and on residual archaeological Trench 32 finds (Thomas et al 2006, 41). While the archaeological evidence does suggest that the Trench 25 Trench 37 Trench 43 Trench 36 Trench 45 island was permanently occupied during the Trench 24 Middle Saxon period, to date no structural remains of the conjectured monastery have Trench 33 been found (Cowie 2004, 205). The Middle Saxon buildings recorded dur- ing the excavation at the Old Treasury Build- ing have been interpreted as the remains of a high status, possibly royal, hall and associated Trench 23 ancillary buildings. A number of factors have contributed to the interpretation of the site as high status. These include the position of the site roughly mid-way between Lundenwic Trench 19 and the conjectured Middle Saxon monast- Trench 13/28 Trench 40 ery on Thorney Island; the presence of high Trench 26 status imported pottery; the nature of the Trench 27 Trench 38 faunal assemblage; and the size of the hall uncovered (Cowie & Blackmore 2008, 100). Trench 22 Trench 12 During the mid-9th century the settlement to the north of Thorney Island seems to have Trench 20 been abandoned. It is possible, though not Trench 11 certain, that activity on the island itself also Trench 14 ceased at this time. This may be a result of intensifying Viking raids during the mid- Trench 7 9th century, or it could be due to rising water levels making the area uninhabitable Trench 6 (Thomas et al 2006, 46). PARLIAMENT STREET Trench 17 Medieval Trench 10 Trench 2 Trench 16 The earliest documentary evidence pertain- ing to the study area comes in the form Trench 3 Trench 9 of a deed dated 1158. It is a grant from Trench 4 Trench 5 Trench 8 Gervase, Abbot of Westminster to Gerin, one Trench 15 of the king’s ministers, for land beside the Enedehithe (terram de Ænedetha) (Mason Trench 35 1988, 261). Enedehithe appears in various 0 50m spellings throughout the medieval period and appears to have been located just north Figure 2b Fig 2b. Trench location detail (southern section) of Thorney Island along the banks of the Trench Location River Thames. Throughout the later part of the 12th century additional land in the area of the Enedehithe, particularly on both sides Building north of Downing Street revealed of what later became known as Endiff or several Middle Saxon buildings (Green & Endive Lane (perhaps originally Enedehithe Cowie 2008, 91—5). Lane), was acquired by members of Henry It has been suggested that Thorney Island II’s administration. The properties here was home to a small Middle Saxon monastery. seem to have been in the occupation of This suggestion is based on the existence of successive Treasurers and Keepers of the a charter of doubtful authenticity recording Wardrobe (Blanchard 2007, 339). 62 Paw Jorgensen Fig 3. Working view of the trench outside the Banqueting House along Whitehall, view looking south Middle Saxon and Later Archaeological Remains in Whitehall 63 The site acquired by Gerin in 1158 was by Inigo Jones and constructed in 1622 after extended by his successors by annexation of the earlier building burnt down in 1619 the adjoining properties. In the early years (Cox & Norman 1930, 116—17, 126). of the 1220s the property passed to Hubert In 1649, Charles I was publically executed de Burgh, first Earl of Kent. By this time on a temporary scaffold set up in front of the property already contained a substantial the Banqueting House.