Recent redevelopment of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden has allowed a dramatic performance of a very different kind to take place. New building work has allowed the excavation of the largest area of early Saxon London to date and the huge wealth of finds uncovered has changed the perception of this period of London's history.

The results of the excavation, undertaken by the Museum of London and generously funded by the Royal Opera House, are to be seen in Saxons at the Opera, a display at the Museum of London from 20 January to 15 February 1998 which complements a new Saxon London display in the main Museum galleries.

It is now known that from the 7th to 9th centuries a flourishing town and trading and production centre lay below the present Covent Garden. The Saxons settled here because they did not want to live in the stone-built city abandoned by the Romans. The existence of the settlement, Lundenwic, had been known for a long time from historical records but its exact location was discovered by archaeologists from the Museum of London in the 1980s. The Saxon name Aldwych, meaning "old town" still exists nearby.

Only with the Royal Opera House dig has the true nature of the town been realised: whole buildings and streets were uncovered along with associated finds showing evidence for a number of industries and trades, including bone working and textile production. It is now known that it was a large and bustling trading port in which houses and other buildings were laid out along streets and alleys which were rebuilt many times. Lundenwic was abandoned in the 9th century because of Viking raids which forced the Saxons back behind the Roman walls still standing around the City. A defensive ditch and part of a sword handle were found at the Royal Opera House site. Recent Saxon objects from this date have also been discovered at waterfront sites in the City, linking archaeological finds to historical records: in 886 Alfred the Great ordered the re-occupation of the City in response to the Viking raids.