Page:VCH London 1.djvu/192

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A HISTORY OF LONDON pottery [Cat. 490, 498, 500]. An inscription found in the Thames, now in the British • • N Museum, runs • p • m • [Corp. Inscr. Latin, vii, 34 d.]. HELLEI See also London Bridge. Thames Street, Lower. — Bronze hand from colossal statue found in 1 845, now in British Museum Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, i, 287 ; xxiv, 75 ; Cat. Land. Antiq. 6, No. 15 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), X, 92 ; Illus. Rom. Lond.b^ ; Roach Smith, Retrospections, ii, 199]. It is 13 in. in length, and as it corresponds in size to the head of Hadrian found in the Thames, has been thought to belong to the same statue. In excavating for the new Coal Exchange in January, 1848, at the north-west corner of the Custom House (Plan C, 13), Roman remains were found at a depth of 12 ft., supposed to be part of a bath, private or public. On the south was an ante-room 23 ft. long, with pavement of red and yellow tesserae and walls of tiles and mortar covered with light red fresco-painting, the foundations being of Kentish rag. A doorway led into the M/t/ar/wOT (not explored). Above this appears to have been an upper room, the first being much below the river level. On the north was a room 12 ft. by 13 ft., with semicircular recess at each end, identified as a laconicum or sudatorium^^ being warmed by a hypocaust with pillars of tiles forming arched passages ; the floor was of concrete formed of broken tiles and mortar, but no pavement was preserved. At the east end was a seat, and near this a passage leading to the caldariutn. Further north was a room 20 ft. square, with tessellated pavement like the first, probably the frigidarium ; part of the walls remained, with a stand for a bath(?), and a drain 20 ft. from the east wall. A few coins of the Constantine family were found, and in a pit near were coins of Domitian, Nerva, and M. Aurelius, a bronze wire armlet, a bone hairpin, and a spoon, frag- ments of Gaulish pottery, and a few tiles ; also much wooden piling [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. iv, 38 fF., with plan and illustrations, 75 ; xxix, 77 ; see also Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. i), i, 236, 240 ; (Ser. 2) ii, 163; Arch. Journ. v, 25 ff.; Morgan, Rom.-Brit. Mosaic Pavements, 186 ; Gent. Mag. (1848), i, 293; Rom.-Brit. Rem. i, 217 ; and pp. 71, 74, with fig. 25, above]. Further investigations made in 1859 disclosed the whole area of the anteroom, and numerous small finds, including a clay lamp with a tragic mask and the maker's name, evcarpi [Guildhall Mus. Cat. 22 ; cf. p. 121], and a coin of Nero. Another room on the north resembled the so-called laconicum of 1848, and had an arched way at the south-east corner. To the north of this again was a room with a tessellated pavement and hypocaust with pillars below ; here were found architectural fragments and coins of the Antonines. Traces of other rooms are recorded, also finds including Gaulish (Lezoux) pottery with the stamps albvci, atiliani, and MARTI, Upchurch ware, &c. [yourn. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxiv, 295, with plate]. In making a sewer in 1834, nearly the whole line was found to be full of oak and chest- nut piles ; and westward, at the foot of Fish Street Hill (Plan C, 27), were remains of substantial masonry (at the point where old London Bridge abutted) [Kelsey, Descr. of Sewers, 90]. Some years previously in Thames Street (whether Upper or Lower is not stated) an ancient culvert, 2 ft. 6 in. wide by 2 ft. high, was found 18 ft. below the surface, formed of oak planks many bone pins or bodkins were also found [ibid. 71]. Sir W. Tite also mentions embankments discovered at the Custom House in 18 13 [Cat. Antiq. Roy. Exch. xxiii ; cf. Herbert, Hist, of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, 14]. Thames Street, Upper. — The labourers employed in making sewers in the early part of the last century aflfirmed the existence of 'an ancient paved causeway,' 20 ft. below the present leel [Gent. Mag. (1832), ii, lo]. Roman remains have been reported in the neighbourhood of Queenhithe (Plan C, 159), including fragments of pavements, tiles, and other evidences of buildings opposite Vintners' Hall (Plan C, 158) [Lond. and Midd. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii, 409]. Pottery was reported in 1879, a bronze ring and an amphora-stopper in 1890 [ffourn. Brit. Arch. Assoc. XXXV, 215 ; xlvii, 88]. In the British Museum is a fragment of green sandstone, ornamented with trellis and floriated patterns, also portions of marble pilasters from a wall, found near Lambeth Hill [Illus. Rom. Lond. 48 ; Cat. Lond. Antiq. 2, No. 4 ; Coll. Antiq. i, pi. 48 B ; fig. 23, p. 70]. Numerous finds were made on the site of the old Steelyard (Plan C, 142, 143), when it was pulled down in 1863 to make the South-Eastern Railway Station, which now stands im- mediately over the site. Some of the objects were presented to the British Museum in that year by Mr. Franks, including some good specimens of ornamented Gaulish pottery ; others were acquired with the Cato collection in 1871. They include stamps of the potters Macer, Marcellus, Marsus, Martius, Medetus, Secundillus, and Sosimus ; also a tile, bone pins and other implements, " According to Roach Smith, a winter apartment. The theory of a bath is pure conjecture. 128