Shoreditch Park community excavation, 2005 - 2006
4 to 24 July 2005 and 1 to 6 August 2006
Toy PlaneShoreditch Park Community Excavation, 2005
Sponsored by the Big Lottery fund, a three week community excavation in July 2005 was undertaken at Shoreditch Park, Hackney to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the second world war.
Supported by members of Archaeological Archive (LAARC), Archaeology Service (MoLAS) and the Museum’s community archaeologist, over 700 school children and a range of adult volunteers excavated three trenches in different areas of the park. The aim of the excavation was to explore the affects of bomb damage on the area now occupied by the park.
Although visible remains of the historic environment in the environs of Shoreditch Park are rare, the park has a varied history. A market garden before 1850, during latter half of the 19th century it became an area of high density housing, comprising rows of terrace housing aligned along narrow streets. Many of these houses were badly damaged in the war; first by the blitz, and then by V1 and V2 rocket attacks.
The remaining houses were demolished in the 1950s to make way for prefabricated houses, before the site was levelled and turn into a community park during the 1980s.
The main trench occupied the site of what was formerly 31 – 34 Dorchester Street, with smaller trenches corresponding to 17 – 18 Dorchester Street and 18a Salisbury Street; the latter a known impact point of a V2 rocket.
The excavation showed that all houses were built to a similar plan of front parlour and rear dinning room. All the remains to the front of the house were below floor level and finds rich; presumably accidental losses through floor boards. Beyond the dinning room was the kitchen – with evidence for drainage and support for a range – and a solid yard surface leading to an external washroom and toilet.
The excavation revealed that the kitchen superseded an earlier, smaller version with its own system of soakaways and culverts.
Finds traysThe finds recovered ranged considerably in date and type; a 16th century stoneware jug to 1950s nylons, for example. But perhaps most intriguingly, the majority of finds consisted of domestic rubbish allowing us to tell something of the lives of individual households. In a much quoted example, we see meals of oysters eaten of blue and white plates, accompanied by ginger beer at number 33.
Some of the finds were more personal in nature, including children’s toys and the skeleton of a cat identified by a former resident as ‘Blackie, the lodger’s cat’.
In many ways the project took on its own momentum. Post-excavation drop in sessions were opened to the public, archive volunteers processed and worked with the finds, a path following the old course of Dorchester street was built across the park and the excavation featured in its own Time Team special Buried by the Blitz; we even returned to the park the following summer.
The soakawayShoreditch Park Community Excavation, 2006
Following the success of the 2005 project, the same team – bolstered by members of the Archive’s Volunteer Learning Programme - returned to the park for one week in the summer of 2006; this time funded by the Shoreditch Trust and concentrating on 21 Salisbury Street.
On this occasion the excavation was timed to coincide with the Shoreditch Festival; during which over 100 people of all ages took part digging & finds washing, with a further 400 people visiting the trench to see what we’d found.
This year little was found of the old terrace housing, but instead uncovered evidence of the post war prefabricated houses and a manhole inspection cover with a system of drains running beneath. On the penultimate day, however, we did discovered a late 19th century brick lined soak-away that was later reused as a rubbish pit.
Many, many finds were recovered during the excavation, including: glass bottles, marbles, beads; ceramic tableware, figurines, building material; bone handles, buttons; iron nails & fittings; copper alloy pins & rings. Among the best finds were a ceramic animal figurine, a small ceramic vessel shaped as a man’s head and a farthing from 1946.
Although the excavations finished some time ago, even today work on the Shoreditch Park project continues as we explore ways to exploit the rich potential of an oral history provided by former residents.