MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

In the last decade MOLA published over 90 academic and popular books and manuals, and has developed processes to ensure the highest standards. Publications include both English Heritage- and developer-funded work but have been joined by significant work for other clients, who are using MOLA as a publishing outlet for their own work.

MOLA's Monograph and Studies Series have in general developed a common structure: an introduction; a chronological narrative describing the site sequence interwoven with the specialists’ evidence; thematic chapters; conclusions; and appendices with supporting data which cater for the specialist reader; these data are supplemented by CD-ROMs and online resources. The integrated approach requires a high level of collaboration and dialogue among the project team, and a focus on strong research aims within regional and national research frameworks and strategies. The research aims are set out before fieldwork begins and are revised at the assessment stage. This approach is underpinned and facilitated by their in-house team, supplemented by experts based in academic institutions. It also requires high levels of IT expertise in their developing relational database and geographic information system (GIS). Quality assurance is essential, supported by MOLA's in-house Managing Editor. Finally the graphics and photography teams ensure high-quality illustrations and products that convey information with maximum clarity. The success of the integrated approach and the quality of the publications is conveyed in many positive reviews written by peers in archaeological journals and news items. As well as the many books MOLA also submit numerous articles to local, regional and national peer-reviewed journals. These papers are just as important to the publisher and their clients, and deliver the results of archaeological work to the target audience as required by both client and curator.In the last decade MOLA published over 90 academic and popular books and manuals, and has developed processes to ensure the highest standards. Publications include both English Heritage- and developer-funded work but have been joined by significant work for other clients, who are using MOLA as a publishing outlet for their own work.

Unearthing the A14

50 objects from one of Britain’s biggest digs

Format: Paperback

Pages: 100

ISBN: 9781907586552

Pub Date: 31 May 2024

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

The archaeological excavations in advance of A14 Road Improvement Scheme in Cambridgeshire are among the biggest and most complex ever undertaken in the UK, revealing important archaeology of prehistoric, Roman, early medieval and medieval date.The fifty finds in this book have been chosen for the stories they tell us. These artefacts are often the only evidence for many of the thousands of people who lived here before us.

Parishioner and Pauper Burials from St James Westminster (1695–1790) Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 201

ISBN: 9781907586521

Pub Date: 10 Nov 2022

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Series: MoLAS Monograph

Illustrations: 170

Description:

Additional burial areas for the parish of St James Westminster in the 17th to 18th century were excavated in 2008–9. As the northern part of the parish around Soho grew and its population increased from the mid 17th century, pressure mounted on burial space in the churchyard on Piccadilly and on existing support structures for the least fortunate members of society. In response, the lower ground (the early extramural burial ground, 1695–1733) and the upper ground (the later extramural burial ground, 1733–90) were opened in succession, along with the new workhouse complex (1725–1913) and the workhouse burial ground (1733–93).

In the Northern Cemetery of Roman London Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 236

ISBN: 9781907586514

Pub Date: 28 Oct 2020

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Series: MoLAS Monograph

Illustrations: 162

Description:

London’s Spitalfields Market was the location of one of the city’s largest archaeological excavations, carried out by MOLA between 1991 and 2007. This book presents the archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence for Roman activity here, to the north-east of the urban settlement and the site of a series of burial grounds on the east side of Ermine Street. Burial began here c AD 120 and continued into the 4th century AD.

The Anglo-Saxon Princely Burial at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea Cover

Format: Paperback

Pages: 108

ISBN: 9781907586477

Pub Date: 08 May 2019

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Illustrations: 135

Description:

In 2003 archaeologists discovered an intact princely burial between busy Priory Crescent and the railway line near Priory Park in Prittlewell. A find of international significance, this is the richest and most important Anglo-Saxon burial found since the 1939 discovery of the great ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. The lavishly furnished wooden chamber beneath a mound contained the coffin of a high-status man, evidently a Christian, who died at the end of the 6th century AD.

A Bronze Age Barrow Cemetery at Andover Airfield, Penton Mewsey, near Weyhill, Hampshire Cover

Format: Paperback

Pages: 92

ISBN: 9781907586491

Pub Date: 30 Mar 2019

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Series: MOLA Studies Series

Illustrations: 43

Description:

Fieldwork between 2007 and 2010 on a chalk downland site near Andover, Hampshire, revealed evidence of funerary and other activity from the Chalcolithic period to the Late Bronze Age. A single, probably female, adult inhumation was accompanied by two Wessex/middle Rhine-type beakers. This grave, although not obviously marked, became the focus for a small number of later cremation burials and pits containing placed miniature pottery vessels.

The Medieval Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital and the Bishopsgate Suburb Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 315

ISBN: 9781907586484

Pub Date: 30 Mar 2019

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Series: MoLAS Monograph

Illustrations: 245

Description:

London’s Spitalfields Market was the location of one of the city’s largest archaeological excavations, carried out by MOLA between 1991 and 2007. This book presents the archaeological and documentary evidence for medieval activity here, on the north-eastern fringe of the historic city, and the site of the Augustinian priory and hospital of St Mary without Bishopsgate, later known as St Mary Spital. Large areas of the medieval precinct have been explored, making this by far the most intensively investigated medieval hospital, and one of the most extensively investigated monastic establishments, in Britain.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 60

ISBN: 9781907586422

Pub Date: 31 May 2018

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

Has the Thames always looked like it does today, confined to the same course, muddy, brackish and tidal? Through analysis of the archaeology investigated along the Crossrail south-east line, which diverts from the main west–east route across the Thames floodplain from Stepney Green to Abbey Wood, this book tells the story of the lower Thames throughout the Holocene (from c. 10,000 years ago to the present).

Format: Paperback

Pages: 228

ISBN: 9781907586446

Pub Date: 31 May 2018

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

This book describes the archaeological evidence from excavations at Crossrail's Broadgate ticket hall at Liverpool Street, from the Late Iron Age to the late Roman marsh formation. The site lay 120m north of the town defences in a landscape dominated by a former tributary of the Walbrook stream, which ran along the west edge of the site. The earliest Roman activity focused on draining the site sufficiently to allow burial and road building in the area.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 300

ISBN: 9781907586439

Pub Date: 31 May 2018

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

Modern Liverpool Street was once on the margins of London: the story of its development – from the medieval marsh of Moorfields to municipal, non-parochial, burial ground and later suburb – is illustrated by archaeological investigations undertaken as part of the Crossrail Central development. Excavation also recovered a wealth of well-preserved artefactual evidence for the local inhabitants, from the 16th century to the 19th-century households of Brokers Row. The New Churchyard, or 'Bethlem' as it was later known, was established after the severe plague of 1563 and was in use from 1569 to 1739; archaeological evidence suggests c 25,000 people in total were buried here.

The Deptford Royal Dockyard and Manor of Sayes Court, London Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 260

ISBN: 9781907586361

Pub Date: 14 Nov 2017

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Illustrations: 199 mostly colour

Description:

Deptford royal dockyard was established in the early 16th century and closed in 1869. Crucial to the maintenance of the nation’s naval power, the dockyard grew from a single storehouse and wet and dry docks to a great complex including stores, slipways, mast docks and other structures supporting ancillary industries, such as sailmaking, timber- and ironworking. Shipbuilding was accompanied by constant repair and rebuilding as the dockyard worked to keep the navy at sea.

Format: Paperback

Pages: 100

ISBN: 9781907586378

Pub Date: 31 Mar 2016

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Series: Crossrail Archaeology

Description:

This book presents the results of the archaeological excavations in advance of the redevelopment by Crossrail Limited of the Eastern Ticket Hall at Tottenham Court RoadUnderground Station, charting the history of one of the great enterprises of Victorian and Edwardian Britain – Crosse and Blackwell.After its move from King Street (close to present-day Shaftesbury Avenue) in 1838 to Soho Square in London’s West End, food manufacturer Crosse and Blackwell built and converted property on a number of streets between Soho Square and Hog Lane (later Charing Cross Road) into warehousing and factory space, enabling production of its food sauces, pickles, vinegar, jams and marmalades on a vast, industrial, scale. With a royal appointment, granted in 1837, the unprecedented use of celebrity chefs to either develop or endorse its products and the branding and labelling of its lines that referenced Britain’s imperial pretensions, Crosse and Blackwell was soon able to dominate not only the domestic market but compete globally.

Glass working on the margins of Roman London Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 170

ISBN: 9781907586330

Pub Date: 01 Feb 2016

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

Excavations in the upper Walbrook valley, in a marginal area in the north-west of the Roman city, recovered over 70kg of broken vessel glass and production waste from a nearby workshop, giving new insights into the workings of the glass industry and its craftsmen. The area was developed in the early 2nd century AD, with evidence of domestic buildings and property boundaries. Two later buildings constructed in the mid 2nd century AD may have been associated with the glass-working industry.

St Marylebone’s Paddington Street North Burial Ground:

Excavations at Paddington Street, London W1, 2012–13

Format: Paperback

Pages: 135

ISBN: 9781907586385

Pub Date: 30 Nov 2015

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

During the 18th century the expansion of the wealthy London parish of St Marylebone led to the development of two additional graveyards to relieve pressure on the church and churchyard on Marylebone High Street. The latest of these, on the north side of Paddington Street, was in use between 1772 and 1853. Archaeologists recorded 386 burials from 124 single, stacked and brick-lined graves at the western edge of this ground.

Format: Hardback

Pages: 193

ISBN: 9781907586392

Pub Date: 31 Aug 2015

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

A major conservation programme took place between 1998 and 2003 on one of Europe's greatest medieval painted wooden ceilings. Investigation and analysis were an integral part of this conservation workin the former Benedictine abbey church of Peterborough. The knowledge gained and the discoveries made during that time, as well as the conservation programme itself, are documented and fully illustrated here.

An early Roman fort and urban development on Londinium’s eastern hill Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 260

ISBN: 9781907586323

Pub Date: 30 Jun 2015

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

Excavation in 1997–2003 produced important new evidence for the development of Roman London. The site lay north-east of the bridge, towards the edge of the early town. Sparse commercial and domestic ribbon development here alongside early roads was ended by the Boudican revolt of AD 60/61.

The Spitalfields suburb 1539–c 1880 Cover

Format: Hardback

Pages: 360

ISBN: 9781907586293

Pub Date: 30 May 2015

Imprint: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

Description:

One of London’s largest archaeological excavations took place at Spitalfields Market, on the north-eastern fringe of the historic city, between 1991 and 2007. This book presents an archaeological history from the 16th to the 19th centuries, reconnecting the archaeological assemblages with documentary evidence in order to describe the place, people and possessions of the early modern suburb of Spitalfields. Following the closure of the medieval priory of St Mary Spital in the 1530s and the construction of private mansions, the largely residential enclave grew into the suburb of Spitalfields in the 17th century as landowners built clusters of houses in the former fields and developer-builders constructed some of London’s first terraced houses in the 1680s over the former military training ground.