Excavations at Medieval Cripplegate, London

Book excerpt: The Cripplegate area of London was the site of a Roman fort and later of medieval structures and artefacts. Excavations between 1946 and 1968 by Professor W F Grimes for the Roman and Medieval London Excavation Council were carried out on 25 bomb-damaged sites, and were preliminarily reported by him in 1968. As part of a major post-excavation programme funded by English Heritage from 1992 to 1997, the archived material from these excavations are being fully published in a series of five volumes, of which this book is one. This report analyses the material afresh and re-appraises Grimes' work. It discusses the post-Roman structures and artefacts of the medieval defences, secular buildings (including evidence of Saxon London), parish churches, and a medieval hospital. Finally, these structures are put into a more contextual framework in a discussion of the dating and development of the street pattern of medieval Cripplegate.