It’s rare for archaeologists to discover objects we can directly link to children, so a team from MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) was delighted to uncover evidence of Victorian children’s schoolwork and play during recent excavations ahead of the development of SEGRO Park Wapping.
As well as a piece of a slate school tablet, still covered with children’s scribbles and handwriting, the team uncovered a large number of alleys – ceramic marbles designed to look like they were made from alabaster stone. They were found inside a covered, brick lined drain, perhaps lost during a particularly enthusiastic match.
The presence of a school on the site was well known, it was founded in the 1530s by Nicholas Gibson, a sheriff of London, and his wife Avice, as a free school for poor boys. In the 1550s, Avice asked the Worshipful Company of Coopers to look after the school and surrounding alms houses for her – and they remained on the site until the late 1800s. The alms houses provided homes and a monthly stipend for older local people in need.
Other discoveries made on this site are challenging commonly held perceptions of this part of London in 1700s and 1800s. At the time, the area was known as Sailor Town and was one of the busiest and most vibrant areas of the city, home to workers involved in all aspects of international maritime trade. Being close to the docks meant people living here had the opportunity to access goods imported to London from across the world.
This includes bottles of wine from Chateau Margaux – a prestigious French vineyard. In 1771, Chateau Margaux produced the first claret sold at Christie’s auction house. The rich and famous, including British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole and US President Thomas Jefferson regularly ordered it. Remarkably, the MOLA team uncovered a seal from one of these prized wine bottles during their excavations.
MOLA Senior Archaeologist Alex Blanks explains:
“The area of Wapping between the docks and Ratcliff Highway had a reputation in the 1700s and 1800s as being overcrowded and dangerous. But finds like this are revealing a more complex social history than often biased contemporary sources would have you believe.
In reality, it was a very diverse area – just like the East End is today. Archaeological evidence, such as expensive imported pottery and wine glasses, suggests that people from a wide range of social standings may have been living in the area and enjoying some of the same luxuries as the richest in society.
We don’t know exactly how the wine from Chateau Margaux got here, but we can imagine – perhaps it belonged to a schoolmaster or ship’s captain with expensive tastes.”
The team have drawn on historical documents alongside their excavations to reconstruct what was happening on the site at different points in its past. This includes one of the darkest episodes in the area’s history: the Ratcliffe Fire of 23 June 1794, one of the largest conflagrations London has ever seen. Beginning in a barge builder’s yard, the blaze spread rapidly, and a contemporary map indicates that this site lay at the very heart of the inferno. This may explain the discovery of a row of brick cellars, heavily blackened with soot.
The excavations have also revealed the floor of the chapel added when the site was rebuilt after the fire, as well as the foundations of terrace houses, wells, soakaways, and rubbish pits in former gardens filled with pottery and clay pipes. Together, these finds help to build a vivid picture of the everyday lives of the people who once called this area home.
Sources : MOLA
