Summary of results

One of the excavated cisterns

Demolition of the derelict former Royal Opera House. Showed that 90% of the site was occupied by cellars to a substantial depth and that these had destroyed any archaeology which may have existed when the Opera House was built. On the rest of the site several 18th/early 19th century industrial structures were found including two circular cisterns, a square cistern. These possibly linked with tanning (modern St Thomas Street was known as Tanner Row until the mid 19th century). At the western end of the site was a ditch or moat shaped feature filled with thick black organic deposit overlying the natural clay. This feature was interpreted as either an alignment of the Damyet stream, or a pond associated with the industrial process of the cisterns.

Related excavations:
Sun Inn, St Thomas Street
80 St Thomas Street
4 North Street

Publications
Transactions 38, p99-100