Abstract:

This paper examines the recycling of funerary and architectural materials in the late Roman city walls of Roman London. Two major sections of the walls incorporate recycled material: the external projecting towers at Trinity Place, Bevis Marks, Castle Street, Crosswall, Goring Street and Camomile Street and the lower courses of part of the riverside wall. While the external projecting towers predominately contained funerary monuments, the recycled elements used in the riverside wall came from two major structures: a monumental arch and a screen decorated with figures of deities. Recent excavations and new research on Roman city walls elsewhere in the empire necessitate renewed study on these structures. This paper provides a short review of the history of the Roman wall of London, its recent excavations and a discussion of recycled material incorporated in both the riverside wall and the external projecting towers. This paper also sets the re-use in London’s city walls in the context of city wall construction and recycling more generally.