Find out more about …archaeology

The buildings of 1st-century Londinium lie up to 8 metres below the streets of the modern City of London. Between them and present-day ground level are the remains of later Roman, of medieval, and of more recent structures.

How has this happened?

Until recently, when houses fell down or were demolished, the rubble was simply levelled out to become a platform for further building. Rubbish was thrown into pits or tipped onto open ground. Rarely was it removed entirely from the city.

High Street Londinium is based on evidence such as this, which was excavated by our Archaeology Service in 1994-6 at 1 Poultry.

Above: Cross-section through a typical archaeological site in the City of London.
The inset shows a sequence of floors and demolition layers recorded during the Poultry dig itself.
A large, cross-sectional diagram of the entire Poultry site is also available.

Find out more about:

• the Poultry dig
• how archaeologists work
• earlier discoveries near High Street Londinium
• links to other archaeological resources

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Background Information | High Street Londinium Main Page

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