Granite Wharf, Greenwich London Borough of Greenwich - Archaeological Desk-based Assessment

Wessex Archaeology

Archaeological evidence has been gained from the Site with the presence of the magazine building but it and earlier deposits will have been removed by 19th century brickearth extraction across part of the Site.

The recorded artefactual finds from prehistory are mainly due to the near locality of the river, with finds washed up along the foreshore and the discovery of a Bronze Age trackway and peat to the east of the Site. Only chance discoveries are noted for the Roman period within the Study Area. Principal Roman occupation is only noted further south with the alignment of Watling Street running east west one and a half kilometres south of the Site connecting to a possible temple in Greenwich Park.

Anglo Saxon activity is also noted within the central Greenwich area to the south through the discovery of a Saxon cemetery on Romney Road and that Greenwich is an Anglo Saxon placename. Later Medieval activity with the Study Area relates to the expansion along the foreshore from Greenwich up to Highbridge Wharf just to the
south of the Site.

Excavations at Highbridge Wharf have revealed evidence of occupation and activity from the 11th to the 16th centuries. It would appear from later cartographic sources that the Site itself remained marshland throughout this period. A gunpowder magazine is shown to have existed on the Site from 1694 and continues as a name (Old Magazine) on a map of 1804 but is disused after 1760 with the area then used for the extraction of brickearth before 1869. It is only from the 19th century that a change from marshland occurs with the development of the general area for industrial purposes. From 1869 the Site is shown to exist under the name of Stone Yard and consists of lime kilns and coke ovens. By the mid 1890s the Site is now known as Granite Wharf and consists of a Lime Cement and Slate Works.