Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-30
DISCOVERIES IN NEWGATE
Part of Roman Wall Unearthed in
London.

! From the Pail Mall Gazette
| The excavations In connection with the
| new Central Sessions House to be built on
| the site of Newgate have taken somewhat
| longer than was anticipated. owing to the
| remarkable depth to which previous struc-
| lures have been found sunk in the ground
| Nearly every cubic foot of the vast area
| has had to be broken up by the pick before
| the shovel could be employed. the brick
| walls and cement foundations OF former
| buildings completely covering the site to as
great depth as twenty feet below the
| pavement level
| In the work of demolition the iaborers
| nave constantly come across pieces of
| StoneWork and Roman walls which had
! evidently been used by builders to make
| the founda tons of even older structures
than Newgate; but the most important dis
! coVery was made a few days ago when
| the Workmen engaged in eXcavating opera
| tons Immediately under the old prison yard
area came Unexpectedly upon a mass of
hard material below the foundations of the
now demolished structure, which seem to
have extended to quite remarkable depths
and in all sorts of unlooked-for directions.
The extraordinary hardness of the SUBJ
stance encountered, where it was thought
nothing tougher than London clay would
have TO be dealt with. occasioned some sur
prise. and as the work was carefully pro-
ceeded with n portion of the old Roman
wall was gradually brought to light It
| was. moreover, in as nearly perfect state
! OF preservation as possible. being I'm this
respect very different TO the fragments re-
yealed against the abutting buildings on
another portion of the site. The authori-
ties. of course, expected to come across the
latter which are very much broken up by
previous builders, but the fine specimen OF
the old London wall which has just been
unearthed under the very foundations of
Newgate is quite unexpected find
The newly revealed portion of the wall.
Job al to II
west to the Tower on the east, and from
London Wall on the north to the Thames on
the south, Is some II feet high and broad
being made of what modern builders would
call kentish rag, or rubble cemented to-
gether with a sort of concrete I'm which
lime predominates. was usual in Roman
mortar. This substance is intersected every
three feet from the foundation upward by
the customary bonding of two rows or
layers of red Roman tiles, each measuring
some II inches in length by II in BREADTH
being from IA to inches in depth. When
the workman's pickaxe has broken them
they look 'fiaky'' as piecrust, yet the
men say they felt ''as hard as iron" when
their tools struck them.
Some yards of the wall have evidently
yet to be brought to light, and in this con-
nection it seems a matter for regret that
some steps cannot he taken to preserve
such a remarkably fine stretch of ancient
masonry as is now being brought to light.
Today the eXcavated portion puts one in
mind of some fine old castle ruin, the illu-
sion being heightened by the fact that inn
mediately on the top of the old Roman
wall is some masonry which is evidently of
a medieval period. The wall itself goes
right down on to very black soil, which
leads some to think that there may at one
time have been a sort of backwash of the
Fleet somewhere in this neighborhood in
former times.
Against Newgate street a portion of the
medieval New Gate which formerly ex-
tended across the present thoroughfare,
but which Dance pulled down in ITO when
building the lately demolished prison house.
has just been unearthed. All excavat tons
in connection with the erection of the new
Sessions House, however. will soon be COM
plete. Indeed the foundations on which
the central tower will rest. and for each OF
which some 10000 bricks have been used,
are practically finished.