Some Thoughts on the Topography of Saxon London

Abstract

In the September number of ANTIQUIT (VIII, 290–302) Dr Wheeler analysed with characteristic brilliance the topographical and archaeological evidence for the relation of Roman and Saxon in Dark-Age London. He pointed out that the 330 acres enclosed by the Roman Walls were divided almost centrally by the Walbrook into two areas of rising ground, the eastern which we may term Cornhill, and the western Ludgate Hill. He showed that there is undeniable evidence epitomized in the position of the central basilica and of London Bridge to prove that the eastern of these was the nucleus of the Roman City, and that the inclusion of the western within the walls was intended ‘to provide generously for a development which only in part materialized’. He noted further that the evidence for the earliest Saxon settlement within the walls pointed with hardly less emphasis to their preference for the western area, where the foundation of St. Paul's, the less certain suggestion of early church dedications, the traditional site of the Royal Palace, the certain position of the Folk Moot, and the more frequent occurrence of small objects of the early Saxon period combine to indicate the focus of their settlement. So far we may tread securely in his footsteps; we may agree with his summary of the contrast— ‘Roman London began on the Hill above London Bridge and spread westwards; Saxon London emerged on the western hilltop and spread eastwards’.