the second part of, dedicated to medieval monuments
The past improvement season has given many reasons to recall the troubles of the city's archeology of the capital, and through it, the broader problem of understanding the role of the historical environment in the space of a modern city. The designers of the park in Zaryadye proposed the concept of "zeroing" the town-planning history of the site, and the catastrophic finale of the excavations at Birzhevaya Square literally nullified the long-term struggle for the rights of archaeological monuments in the constantly under construction metropolis.
It is obvious that officials and architects still have no personal interest in the heritage, and city rights activists do not find the necessary arguments to persuade them. Especially in cases where the problem goes beyond the bounds of the law, where solutions are required that are complex, creative and compromise. It's time to turn to the experience of cities that have already learned this dialogue.
The history of London's security archeology dates back to the 1950s - the Moscow experience is perhaps even older (the first systematic security works were observations of the construction of the metro in 1934). However, the number of monuments of architectural archeology preserved and included in today's urban environment is incomparably greater than ours. We have selected the most striking examples and will start with one of the most important events in English cultural life this fall - the second return of the famous London Mithraeum.
The ancient temple of the god Mithra, founded around 240 AD, was first discovered in a construction pit in the City in 1954 and became a national sensation. Huge queues of spectators were lined up to the excavation, and one day those suffering from the ancient culture filled up the fence and took the excavation by storm. The topic attracted the attention of not only national newspapers, but also leading politicians.
It all started with the fact that in a randomly laid excavation site on the site of a quarter destroyed by German bombs, a masonry of Roman times appeared, at first mistaken for the remains of a residential building. However, after the opening of the semicircular altar, it became clear that this is one of the pagan temples of ancient Londinium. And after the discovery (on the last appointed day of excavations!) The sculpted head of the god Mithra, it became clear whose temple it was. Mithra, revered by legionnaires, and his cult at that time were in an underground position, after which Bacchus was worshiped here - the story was intriguing. But according to the plans of the developers, at the end of the research, the ruins should have been eliminated.
The public outcry and personal interest of Winston Churchill - the issue was discussed in parliament and twice in the cabinet of ministers - allowed the monument to be formally preserved, but in reality this was achieved at the cost of an unacceptable compromise. The government refused to compensate the developer for the reduction in the area of the seven-story building, which is necessary to preserve the temple in its place. Instead, it was decided to move the ruins at the expense of the developer. They say that a generation later, developers continued to flinch, remembering this story - of course, it is not so much a matter of costs as of the complexity of a precedent that did not have the necessary legal basis. Until the last moment, archaeologists also spoke of Mithraeum with great sadness.
The walls, dismantled into unmarked stones, were stored in a warehouse until 1962, then they were assembled on the roof of an underground parking lot 90 meters from the previous place, with the replacement of a significant part of the original material, simplification of parts and the use of fierce cement. In fact, only the threshold slab remained undoubtedly genuine and in its place.
In 2012, the 1950s office was demolished. In its place, construction began on a new complex called Bloomberg SPACE, completed by Foster & Partners. Obviously, if the London Archaeological Service had been less vigilant, the remains of the cultural layer at the bottom of the giant, once already worked out excavation pit would have gone unnoticed. But timely reconnaissance showed that below the basements a layer was preserved so deep and moist (one block to the Thames - the dampness of the soil preserves organic matter) that it immediately received the name of Northern Pompeii. The excavations proved to be a record amount of information from the Roman period, from hundreds of shoes and rich utensils to beautifully preserved structures of wooden houses. All this on a site globally dug and
pierced with concrete piles of the twentieth century.
Among other things, new remains of the temple of Mithra were found, not excavated by the discoverers. It was decided to return the stones on the street to their original place, "docking" them to the intact walls and making them part of the interior of the new complex. Despite the fact that the newly acquired fragments have survived only in the form of parts of the foundation and are unsuitable for display, they have been preserved in the ground in their place. For this, the room in which the newly assembled main part is located has been moved 12 meters to the west. The walls of the restored temple are actually a model made of ancient material, but this technology made it possible to make the ruin more visual than the preserved original (for example, imitation of lime on certain sections of the walls).
The antique stones were cleared of cement and assembled again using the correct mortar, observing the required (noticeably greater than the previous version) thickness of the joints. The new Mithraeum is much better and more reliable than the previous one, and as archaeologist John Shepherd said: "The temple is attracting so much attention that I am not sure if it was as significant to London during the Roman period."
There were many ways to beat Mithraeum in the new space. The designers chose the most tactful and romantic one, enveloping the ruin in a "veil of times" in the form of artificial fog. The exhibit is housed in a semi-dark hall designed by Local Projects and master of lighting installations Matthew Schreiber. The outlines of the walls and openings that have not survived are projected onto the fog, the vision is accompanied by sound design that imitates the noise of an ancient city. At the entrance to the building there is a bronze sculpture by Christina Iglesias “
Forgotten Streams ", reminiscent of the Walbrook Creek, on the banks of which the Temple of Mithra once stood (another antithesis to the" nullifiers "of urban history).
Posted by Galería Elba Benítez (@galeria_elba_benitez) Oct 25 2017 at 5:26 PDT
*** video about the study of the temple of Mithra and the creation of the museum:
For more information on the excavations of Mithraeum, see.
Bloomberg space report. ***
… The Mithraeum became the first museumified, but not the first preserved monument of ancient London. Over the centuries, construction work in the City has stumbled over the ruins of ancient buildings and has always been a subject of considerable curiosity for the townspeople. The discovery was first saved back in 1848 - the interest in the ruins of the Roman baths (Billings gate bathhouse) found in the pit turned out to be so great that they were hidden in the basement of a new building built above them on Lower Thames street. Not to become an object of the show, but just in case, the time for which has come only in our days.
Bilingsgate Roman Baths
The time has come also because in 1882 these ruins were protected by the first law on ancient monuments. Thanks to the conservation status, they managed to survive the second construction project: the antique walls were re-hidden in the basement of an office building in the late 1960s. In 2011, a group of restoration students cleared up forgotten and dusty ruins and developed a project for their exhibition use. Now the guides of the Museum of London conduct weekly excursions in the technical basement. Surely over time, this place will become a full-fledged museum.
In 1988, not far from the Bilingate ruins, another similar Roman bathhouse (Huggins hill bathhouse) was found, more extensive and preserved, but not covered by a protected status. At the same time, in a pit on the opposite bank of the Thames, the foundation of the Rose Theater appeared - one of the stages on which Shakespeare worked. Already agreed new buildings should have appeared on the site of both finds: archaeologists were allocated exactly two officially set months for security research.
It became clear that the walls of the legendary Rose would soon be legally destroyed, as the city authorities refused to pay for the change in the project. And then theatrical figures stood up to protect the relics. Petitions were written by Ian McKellen, Rafe Faines, Alan Rickman, Patrick Stewart, Judi Dench (check out
company!), specially arrived from the USA Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier himself. The townspeople were on duty at the construction site day and night, politicians joined the dispute. As a result, the developer and the government still agreed to spend 11 million pounds to adjust the project and preserve the finds.
Both monuments were saved from demolition - but at the same time the Roman baths were covered with sand, hiding them for a long time under the floor of the office building, and the structures of the theater, placed under a spectacular transparent coating, became part of the new theater hall, The Rose Play house. And the most important result is the adoption by the government of the PPG 16 instruction, which defined the role of archeology and development in controversial situations. This document also outlined the priority of the physical preservation of significant archaeological sites in their place, unless this is contrary to national interests.
Not all antique buildings become objects of museum display, but the status of the identified monument obliges one way or another to preserve them at the place of discovery. Of course, the cult of ruins has a huge place in English culture and there are many excellent examples of their incorporation into the urban landscape in London. They can decorate parks (for example, the medieval Lesnes Abbey in Abbey Wood Park in east London) or squares in the closer center (fortifications and towers in the Barbican multi-storey complex). The situation with archaeological sites in the city's business districts is more complicated, as these are objects that appear suddenly and often stand across the plans of extremely influential developers.
Nevertheless, the city fortress, founded by the Romans and built up in the Middle Ages, has long been in a special position. It is revered and studied, and quests to find the scattered remains of the wall are the favorite entertainment of advanced tourists. Therefore, in addition to several well-known sections of the wall that are present on the streets of the City, there are a number of fragments preserved in rather unexpected places. They were found in the basement walls of later houses during their demolition, incorporated into new buildings and hidden, for example, in the dressing room of a nightclub (London Wall House, 1 Crutched Friars), in the basements of the offices of Emperor House on Vine Street and Merrill Lynch on Giltspur Street. at the convention center on America Square (this fragment can also be seen through the skylight from the street with the distinctive name Crosswall). If someone needs to visit the relics of local history, it is not difficult to arrange a visit with the administration of the buildings.
Slightly less fortunate is the fragment found on the London Wall road. This happened in 1957, when, during the construction of the parking lot, a 64-meter section of it was opened. They managed to save a small tail, which best preserved the Roman masonry with characteristic brick joints on the stone surface. The rest of the parts, rebuilt in the Middle Ages, were destroyed as less valuable. The ruin was allocated two parking spaces. The sight is a little sad, but note that this is not a victim of a bulkhead, but a truly authentic ancient building. A small part of the western gate of the first fort, built 80 years earlier than the rest of the Roman fortress, is preserved in the concrete chamber of the same parking lot - now this room is the property of the Museum of London and once a month, by appointment, guided tours are held in it.
One of the consequences of the adoption of PPG 16 was the creation of the most famous underground monument-museum to date: the Roman amphitheater under the new wing of Guildhall. They say that during the reign of King Arthur, folklots (popular gatherings) were held on the terraces of the old amphitheater, and the result of the tradition was the appearance of the Guildhall (medieval town hall) in this very place. The amphitheater was discovered in 1988, excavations were carried out until 1996. As a result, the ruins received the status of a protected monument, which meant that one way or another, but they would be preserved only in their place. The developer agreed to change the finished project of the art gallery building, which required complex engineering solutions, but made the gallery a unique and exceptional object.
The creation of the exhibition hall and its exposition in Guildhall continued in stages until 2006 (most of the time it took to work with authentic wooden structures). The best-preserved entrance of the amphitheater was preserved in the lower tier of the art gallery, while the elliptical outline of the rest of the arena was marked by paving in the wide square in front of the building.
Two lower technical tiers were laid under the preserved intact amphitheater. For this, the walls were slowly dried and packed in boxes filled with construction foam. After that, the floor reinforcement of the lower tier was brought under them. It was necessary to hang out not only an array of stone walls, preserved to a height of up to 1.5 meters, but also a layer of the original soil under them. The museum's design, by Branson Coates, transformed the room into a semi-dark space with illuminated ruins, neon art of gladiator figures and a perspective projection of a defunct arena.
Roman amphitheater in the lower tier of the Guildhall Gallery
You can watch the exposition without going down to the museum, from the glazed loggia on the gallery stairs.
The sources read: “The City Corporation has recognized the significant potential for further research and the need for careful management of this archaeological resource in the future. We also recognize the benefits of preserving the ruins for public display as a major archaeological discovery. " For the Moscow ear, the phrase "the corporation has recognized the benefits of the ruins" sounds too musical. Thirty years ago it sounded the same for English, but now respect for ancient heritage has really become an important part of developers' PR strategy, and archaeological exploration, which has become the norm before obtaining a building permit, makes it possible to painlessly integrate archeology into a project.
For example, right now, to the north of the City, a 37-storey residential complex "Scene" is under construction, the central link of which, in the direct and in the marketing sense, is the excavated fragments of another Shakespeare's theater - the Curtain Theater, founded in 1577.
Archival data suggested that traces of the theater could be preserved in this quarter. The idea of building a large complex, involving the demolition of buildings that existed here, created the conditions for research for the first time. Reconnaissance in 2012 confirmed the safety of the facility and clarified its location. Developers and archaeologists spoke in unison about how eagerly they await the start of cooperation. In 2016, well-prepared, fast and high-quality excavations were carried out, revealing the first known rectangular theater, the walls of which have been preserved to a height of 1.5 meters. A place of honor has already been booked in the center of the Perkins + Will-designed complex.
As you can see, the most ancient Roman buildings (along with the most valuable Shakespearean addresses) defended their rights in the ever-building London, but the situation with the underground ruins of the Middle Ages was and remains more complicated.
