Monument record 8051/2 - Roman structural evidence at Black Friars House

<1> Strickland, T.J., 1986, Recent Fieldwork - Grosvenor Museum Excavations Section Report, Source now lost (Unpublished Report). SCH2805.

<2> Ward, S. W., 2012, Blackfriars House, 1986 (Article in Monograph). SCH6582.

A trench cut across at Black Friars House in 1986 revealed several phases of a substantial Roman building, possibly associated with the earlier discovery of Roman structural evidence in the adjacent property (8051/1). The evidence was confined to the northern 4m of the trench with the central part destroyed by the insertion of a cellar in the post medieval period. In this area it was possible to identify four phases of construction.

The first phase of construction comprised a single timber beam slot [Context F8] and two possible post holes interpreted as a part of a timber building dating to the late first or early second century AD. This was followed by a second phase timber building comprising a single beam slot [Context F5] to the north of the first phase building. The phase 2 timber building was subsequently sealed by a demolition level yielding numerous fragments of high quality wall plaster. Although no dating evidence was recovered from the building itself, pottery from the demolition layer produced dates from the early second century with an absence of black burnished ware suggesting an end date of c.120 AD.

Following the demolition layer, a series of deposits associated with a possible stone phase building was also encountered in the northern half of the trench. The evidence comprised a robber trench [Context F1], a possible crushed sandstone surface [Layer 10], a circular cut [context F6] and a small pit [Context F4] containing the articulated remains of a large dog. No certain dating evidence from this phase was recovered apart from a single sherd of second century ware from the small pit. The crushed sandstone surface was tentatively interpreted a veranda to the south of the building.