Part 4

The Working City

14

The urban hinterland

Roads and roadside settlements

The foundation of London transformed the landscape of south-east Britain, inspiring a network of roads and secondary sites radiating from the city (Fig. 14.1). The roads that issued from the river crossing connected London to other strategically important places in southern Britain. This street system may have incorporated pre-Roman components, but was largely the product of post-conquest engineering. The first cambered metalled surfaces and flanking droving ditches were almost certainly army-built. Rome required a public infrastructure of roads, bridges, and quays to move vital goods, and collect the taxes in kind and tribute on which it relied. The hard-wearing surfaces were designed for convoys of waggons carrying heavy goods, rather than soldiers on the march. This road traffic was served by a series of overnight staging points. Many are listed in the Antonine Itinerary, housing facilities used in the imperial communication and transportation network later administered as the cursus publicus. ¹

Fig. 14.1 The hinterland of London at the end of the first century ad. Drawn by Fiona Griffin.

Four main roads approached Claudian London: one from each cardinal direction. To the south, the Kent road followed the Thames inland, bringing traffic from Richborough and Canterbury across the Medway at Rochester before heading towards Greenwich Park and thence into London along the Old Kent road via Southwark. Most goods arriving from the European continent reached London by river, but travellers would have taken the shorter Channel crossing and made their way by road. Soldiers arriving or departing Britain would have marched or ridden along Watling Street, crossing the Thames at London Bridge with caravans of pack-animals and camp-followers. Before reaching London Watling Street made an important stop at the sacred springs and wells of Springhead. ² This was already a place of votive offering before the conquest, but saw significant expansion in the Roman period. Several masonry Romano-Celtic temples were built here in the second century, accompanied by ritual shafts containing dogs’ skeletons and a human cranium. These features find close parallel in the sanctuaries that guarded London’s borders at Blossom’s Inn and Tabard Square (pp. 266–7). Roadside settlements were also established at crossings of the rivers Darent and Cray, serving as focal points for settlements along these fertile river valleys. ³ Another was at Welling where timber buildings and burials of the first and second centuries have been identified. ⁴ Closer to London a substantial masonry building with tessellated floors was found on the hillside overlooking the Thames at Greenwich Park. ⁵ This was probably a small Romano Celtic temple. Occupation started by c. ad 100, although most finds derive from later restoration. These include fragmentary marble inscriptions that might have included a dedication to the imperial divinities, although the reading is uncertain, and an arm derived from the two-thirds life-size statue of a female figure that Martin Henig fancies as Diana Venetrix. The building was supplied with roof-tiles bearing the distinctive stamp of the Procurator’s London tilery.

The Colchester road, described as routes 5 and 9 in the Antonine Itinerary, headed east from London to meet the marshes of the Lea valley at Old Ford in Bow, about 4.6 kilometres distant, before reaching the site of Durolito (possibly Romford) en route to the crossing of the River Chelmer at Chelmsford. ⁶ Excavations at Lefevre Walk Estate in Old Ford show that the road occupied a 25.5-metre-wide easement between boundary ditches, with an 11-metre-wide gravel carriageway flanked by side-tracks up to 5.5 metres across. ⁷ Old Ford was an important site because it commanded the crossing of the river Lea and its fertile water-meadows. A 7.5-metre-wide Roman road along the eastern side of the valley, between Leyton and Walthamstow, helped manage this landscape. ⁸

The line of the main road west from London, Watling Street, can be traced from Newgate along Oxford Street to Marble Arch, where it divides. The north-west route to St Albans (Verulamium) is followed by the Edgware Road to the summit of Brockley Hill, a distance of about 16.5 kilometres. This was the location of early Roman pottery kilns and tile works, and perhaps the site of Sulloniacis mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary although its core may have lain further south at Burnt Oak. ⁹ Finds associated with the earliest metalled surfaces of Watling Street outside Verulamium are late Neronian, suggesting that the northerly section of the road wasn’t provided with its metalled agger until some 10–15 years after work started outside the gates of London. ¹⁰ The west road continued along what is now the northern side of Hyde Park, making its way towards the crossing of the river Brent at Brentford, and thence to Staines (Pontibus), before reaching Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum). Excavations at Brentford have shown that the earliest road, about 4–6 metres wide, was established soon after the Roman conquest. ¹¹ This was then doubled in width during the Flavian period. Timber houses flanked the road in sufficient numbers for it to be estimated that some 300–500 people lived here.

The other main road leaving London, Ermine Street, may also have been completed sometime after the conquest. A roadside ditch found at 201 Bishopsgate, 520 metres north of the line of the later city wall, contained late first- or early second-century pottery, although arrangements within the settlement suggest that the southern end of Ermine Street was planned before the revolt of ad 60/61 (above p. 82). ¹² This road headed north from Bishopsgate, following the line now taken by Tottenham High Road, eventually destined for Lincoln and York. A slight deviation in its line at Holywell in Shoreditch might mark a landmark along its course, such as a shrine at a source of the Walbrook. Isolated Roman inhumations have been found some 5–6 kilometres north of the city, between Stamford Hill and Hackney, but the main roadside settlements along Ermine Street were at Bush Hill Park near Enfield, nearly 15 kilometres from London, and Cheshunt Park 8 kilometres further to the north. ¹³ Flue tiles from Bush Hill Park suggests that one of the buildings contained a heated hypocaust. Ermine Street itself was recorded at Snell’s Park in 1956 where the roadway was some 7 metres wide. ¹⁴

Roads also reached London from the Sussex Weald, converging on Watling Street south of Southwark. The most important of these was Stane Street, which connected London to Chichester (Noviomagus) by way of a roadside station at Ewell. ¹⁵ This may have had a ritual focus, including a temple with ritual shafts established around a sacred spring. A roadside hamlet may also have existed at Mitcham. ¹⁶ A section of the metalled surfaces of Stane Street, flanked by roadside ditches, was uncovered at Harper Road in 2017. ¹⁷ The gravel had been quarried from the sides of the route, and backfilled with material dated ad 55–70. Ritual shafts or wells, similar to those from Swan Street (above p. 79) were dug nearby. The road may have been built c. ad 70, making it contemporary with other Flavian additions to the road system around London (pp. 122–3).

Two other routes reached London across the Sussex Weald. Neither served other urban centres or known theatres of Roman military action, and their construction highlights the importance of goods-traffic between London and ironworking sites in the High Weald. The road from the Brighton area joined onto Stane Street near the Oval and was flanked by a roadside settlement at Croydon. That from the Lewes area aimed for a junction with Watling Street at Peckham, after passing the ridgetop site of a masonry Romano-Celtic temple in Titsey Park near Biggin Hill. The road appears to have been orientated on this temple close to the source of the river Eden. ¹⁸ First- and second-century pottery has been recovered from the site, although much of the architecture is likely to have been later. A settlement also developed alongside this road at West Wickham. ¹⁹

These observations show that the main roads into Roman London were planned within a decade of the conquest, although some sections were not surfaced until the Neronian period. This street system was significantly enhanced in the early Flavian period (c. ad 70–80/85), when several secondary routes were established and cambered metalled street surfaces became universal. Several roadside settlements around London may have come into being in the Flavian period. We lack sufficient archaeological detail to describe their early histories but only a few were certainly in existence before ad 70. The earlier foundations include Springhead and Staines, both established as waterside settlements prior to the conquest. Brentford was also early, and pottery production at Brockley Hill may have begun c. ad 55, before expanding massively c. ad 70. ²⁰ The roads respected the sacred properties of the landscapes they traversed. Temples built on hilltops—as at Greenwich and Titsey Park—may have been useful sighting points for Roman engineers, and places for hauliers to marshal transport before and after the steepest ascents. Others at springs and river crossings, such as Springhead and Ewell, formed sensible watering points and attracted larger satellite communities. Votive offerings made at these places are likely to have purchased or rewarded safe passage, reminding us of the vulnerability of people and goods in movement.

One of the gods addressed was Mercury. Altars and statues to Mercury have been found close to the entrances to London. These include a small limestone altar from Smithfield, just beyond London’s north-western boundary, a limestone statue of the god wearing his characteristic long cloak found on the northern borders of town at Moorgate and a votive altar found at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1907. ²¹ Another statue of the god was found in the roadside settlement at Usher Road in Bow. ²² According to Caesar the Gauls were particularly attached to his worship, claiming him as the guide for all roads and journeys, and holding special power over money-making and trade. ²³ Intriguingly some of these statues were mutilated and discarded within roadside ditches during the second or third centuries.

Most roadside settlements comprised a cluster of timber buildings strung out either side of the streets, typically covering some 5–6 hectares. Riverside locations were favoured: they made natural stopping points where animals could be watered and grazed, and connected with longer-established routes along the valleys. The inhabitants of these sites commonly engaged in small-scale craft production and industry, along with crop-processing and domestic activities. There was a ring of these settlements, about 15–20 kilometres out from London. These are likely to have been official stations (mutationes and mansiones) in the cursus (or vehiculatio), where couriers on imperial service could exchange post-horses and take rest. ²⁴

It is important to remember that the roads were built to cater for slow-moving wheeled traffic. The pattern of roadside settlement around Roman London coincided with the distances that hauliers and drovers could expect to cover in a day. A parallel can be drawn with arrangements in later Roman North Africa, where annona grain was brought to port in heavy four-wheeled ox-drawn waggons that travelled the roads at an average speed of about 3.2 kilometres per hour. ²⁵ Drovers herding livestock to meet military and urban demand were no faster, perhaps covering 15–20 kilometres a day. Most would have been private operators, but the supporting infrastructure required government investment and control. ²⁶ Posting stations would have incorporated official residences, grazing lands and storage facilities, alongside the publicly owned land corridor formed by the roads themselves. The presence of these facilities made them suitable places for the collection, storage, and onward dispatch of the taxes and rents from the surrounding countryside. Much will have arrived in the form of grain and agricultural surplus. ²⁷ Some roadside settlements may also have held periodic markets (nundinae) attended by pedlars operating from nearby towns, where seasonal labour might be hired. ²⁸ Markets were closely regulated, and usually kept at least 10 kilometres away from the nearest town to avoid competition. Roman posting stations could be run by licensees who had successfully bid for a 5-year contract (manceps), but were increasingly entrusted to low-ranking officials or military appointees. ²⁹ These outposted frumentarii could be placed at stopping points along important transport and communication routes to manage and requisition necessary transport. In addition to opportunities to profit from tax-collection and market dues, rents would also have been taken from roadside commercial properties. The presence of an administrative apparatus supported by these sources of income might account for the occasional evidence of higher-status architecture and burials.

In addition to these new roadside settlements, riverside communities were established at Putney, Charlton and Thamesmead. ³⁰ These too may have facilitated the collection and transport of local agricultural surplus commanded by London, but may also have become sites of villa estates, accounting for the masonry structures identified at Charlton and Thamesmead. Despite Rome’s invention of a new geography of control, the Iron Age settlements closest to London remained remarkably little changed. Farmsteads at Bermondsey Abbey, Clerkenwell, and St Martin-in-the-Fields may have carried on much as before, and there are no signs of significant new building at these places until considerably later. ³¹

Suburban sites

A few new settlements of entirely Roman character were established along the north bank of the Thames within easy reach of London (Fig. 14.2). The early Flavian road laid out across open land east of London, later the axial focus of the eastern cemeteries, headed towards Shadwell and perhaps Ratcliffe. ³² The settlement at Shadwell was located 1 kilometre east of London, overlooking a channel of the Thames about 100 metres south of the line of the road, and subsequently became the site of an important late antique complex. These later buildings replaced timber-framed structures associated with late first- and second-century pottery, one with a raised floor that may have been a granary. ³³ The road may have continued east towards Ratcliffe, 1 kilometre further downriver, where lead and stone coffins found in 1858 imply the presence of an important late Roman settlement. ³⁴ Although the site at Ratcliffe awaits archaeological investigation, and the early structures at Shadwell are of uncertain significance, at least one of these sites was sufficiently important c. ad 70 to warrant building a road to London.

Fig. 14.2 The immediate environs of the city in the Flavian period. Drawn by Fiona Griffin.

Similar developments took place upriver. A bridge over the river Fleet, probably built in the early 70s, served a Roman road beneath Fleet Street that reached suburban sites along the Strand. ³⁵ The church of St Bride’s occupies the site of a late Roman building on the west bank of the Fleet, where unstratified pottery includes sufficient early material to suggest settlement before the end of the first century. ³⁶ Another important early site was established at The Temple, 0.5 kilometres west of the Roman city. Excavations at 11–23 New Fetter Lane, near Dr Johnson’s house, found the iron connecting collars of a piped-water supply, a masonry wall, and a scatter of late first- and early second-century material including flue-tiles. ³⁷ These mark the presence of buildings, probably including a bathhouse, close to where the Knights Templar built Temple Church in the twelfth century. The Roman precursor of Fleet Street continued westwards towards Thorney Island in Westminster, 2 kilometres upriver from London, passing close to the site of the farmstead and villa at St Martin-in-the-Fields. We don’t know when this area was first occupied, but scattered finds around Westminster Abbey mark the presence of a high-status settlement from the second century. ³⁸

In sum, suburban sites were established at Shadwell and the Temple by the end of the first century, whilst later sites at Westminster Abbey, St Bride’s, and Ratcliffe may have had early origins. These commanding locations on the north-bank of the Thames were reached by new roads built during the ad 70s. The high status architecture might indicate that these sites were the suburban villas of wealthy Londoners, although they might alternatively have started life as estate centres. Whilst Claudian and Neronian engineering had concentrated on London’s port, the early Flavian investment widened to embrace other locations where goods moved between road and river, as illustrated by the improvements to the Southwark Channel and at the mouth of the Fleet (above pp. 120 and 127). The suburban sites may have been the product of investment in the infrastructure of communication and control after Vespasian’s accession. The river and its navigable tributaries were essential to the movement and management of resources, establishing a network of connectivity around which the Roman infrastructure of quays and roads was developed. ³⁹

High-status architecture and finds have also been identified at a handful of sites on the immediate borders of the Roman town, at St Andrew Holborn, the Artillery Ground, and Spital Square, and it is likely that these were suburban villas (p. 124). Finds including Roman building material and a well containing a second-century flagon hints at the presence of another villa or farmstead next to the river Tyburn where it was crossed by the main west road some 2.5 kilometres west of the Roman town. ⁴⁰

Villas and elite settlement

With the important exception of these suburban sites, the landscape around London contained remarkably few villas. Successful towns in the western provinces were usually surrounded by country estates managed from expensively decorated villas. Villas were enjoyed as symbols of an aristocratic status that relied on urban institutions, defining a clear relationship between land ownership, wealth, and political power. Villas in southern Britain tend to cluster within 10–20 kilometres of major towns. ⁴¹ London, however, was different and few were built within 20 kilometres of the town. ⁴² The absence of villas north of London and towards the Weald may in part be explained by the unfavourable character of the wooded clay soils found here, but this doesn’t account for their infrequency on the farmed gravel terraces to east and west. Nor can gaps in distribution be dismissed as the consequence of a failure to recognize sites beneath the modern urban sprawl, since low-status settlements and Roman burials have been found in areas where villas are under-represented. If we exclude suburban and riverside sites, only two rural Roman masonry buildings have been certainly identified in Greater London north of the Thames and west of the Lea: at Wembley and Ruislip. ⁴³ A few more appear to have been built east of the Lea, especially along the Roding valley. The closest of these to London was found at Leyton Grange in 1718, with others likely at Wanstead Park, Chigwell, and Abridge. ⁴⁴ Although the high-status architecture on these sites is unlikely to date before the second century, their occupation may have had earlier origin. All were located on the south-western margins of the late Iron Age ‘Eastern kingdom’ ruled from Colchester, and their distribution is consistent with a pattern of elite settlement established prior to the conquest. This suggests that these villas were located within Catuvellaunian territories and remained politically independent of London.

Similar arguments apply south of the Thames. Several luxuriously appointed villas were built along the fertile Darent and Cray valleys and in the chalk downlands above their headwaters. The earlier high-status architecture found at these sites dates c. ad 80–90 and involved masonry foundations supporting clay and timber walls like the best town houses of the period. Examples include the villas at Lullingstone, Orpington Station, and Keston, with slightly later establishments at Farningham and Darenth. ⁴⁵ Several of these villas replaced high-status Iron Age farmsteads. At Keston, for example, an enclosed late Iron Age farmstead was occupied into the Roman period and c. ad 60–85 included a kiln that manufactured local Gallo-Belgic fine wares. ⁴⁶ These sites were culturally and geographically part of Kent, drawing on Gallo-Belgic aristocratic traditions introduced prior to the Roman conquest. If Ptolemy was correct in describing London as a city of Kent, then these villas west of the Medway might have been home to wealthy landowners qualified to participate in London’s governing council (curia). ⁴⁷ In this case the Flavian investment in the villas of west Kent might have been prompted by the changes in political arrangements implied by the building of London’s forum (above p. 133). This may, however, give too much credit to London. Flavian reform was felt throughout the province, and these Kentish villas may have remained outside of London’s political jurisdiction looking instead to Canterbury or Rochester.

A connection between London and Kentish property is established by the text of a writing tablet found in Walbrook reclamation dumps at Throgmorton Avenue in 1986. ⁴⁸ The scratched text, dated to the Ides of March ad 118, described a two-hectare (15 arepennia) wood located in a parish (pagus) in the territory of the people of Kent (ciuitas Cantiacorum), that Lucius Julius Bellicus claimed to have bought from Titus Valerius Silvinus for 40 denarii. Roger Tomlin has observed that the name of the wood, Verlucionium, derives from the Celtic for ‘shining grove’ hinting that it might have been a sacred grove. Since the Imperial Procurator would have kept records of provincial landholding for taxation purposes we don’t know if the Roman citizens who had bought and sold this wood lived in London, but this is a possibility. It is easy to imagine this document to have described woodlands belonging to one of the villa estates along the Darent and Cray valleys. Although the estates of west Kent may not have lain within London’s political territory, they enjoyed a close economic relationship with the city. ⁴⁹ Their arable lands are a likely source of grain that supplied the city. Ernest Black has noted that the villas of west Kent had larger granaries than elsewhere in region, and this may have been influenced by the opportunities presented by the London market. ⁵⁰ Beer may also have been brewed for export to London: with malting and milling attested at the Northfleet villa. ⁵¹

Villa architecture was the product of an urban social order that relied on wealth and status displayed on rural estates, and the flourishing of villa economies was closely linked to the development of political careers. ⁵² London’s failure to attract a penumbra of villas suggests that it enjoyed a different relationship with its surrounding territory to other self-governing cities. This lends support to the argument that it was a creation of the Roman authorities, governed by imperially appointed administrators and their servants in an arrangement that limited opportunities for the emergence of a land-owning aristocracy. It seems likely that much of the countryside around London was instead governed directly from the city, or from the network of roadside and riverside sites developed in the Flavian period. This placed considerable power in the hands of the lessees and officials based at such sites, but leaves open the question of who owned the lands around London and ultimately controlled the wealth they produced.