Spot the Mistake #2

[kevin wooldridge]

Stockwell Street SE10 was the site of a V2 bomb which fell on Greenwich in early 1945......as with many London sites excavated as a result of redevelopment following WWII bomb damage, this was not professional archaeology as we know it today, but a combination of a small number of professionals (William Grimes notably, and later Peter Marsden and Brian Philp) aided by labourers, volunteers and local archaeology societies. Some very good work was achieved which can look risky compared to modern day techniques and practices. It should be remembered that quite often just setting foot on these sites was risky, due quite often to the presence of unexploded ordnance.....even as late as the 1980s we were still finding bombs and the like on sites in South London, especially close to the Thames and the docks.

In the picture it appears that the site level is well down into the London clay which as far as unsupported sections goes is probably as good as you will get. Most of the tube system is excavated through this stuff with little record of subsidence or collapse. Quite why they are so low is a bit of a mystery as I'm pretty sure at that date they weren't about sampling the Holocene.....but there you go