Uncovering the past

Here are 11 Key discoveries, provided by Nick Tyson of Regency Town House:

1. As the Romans first entered London, they likely did so whilst walking directly over the area that would later become Skinners’ Hall.
2. Our old Hall stood on a discrete and now documented subsection of our current plot.
3. Barges once passed directly to the west of the old Hall, navigating between the Thames and the centre of the City along the River Walbrook. It seems highly likely that with this water source adjacent to the Hall, it was used by early artisan Skinners during the preparation of pelts.
4. Some 600-800 years ago, the central southern section of our current plot was raised approximately 4m with earth backfill, during land reclamation work. This activity narrowed or fully closed the Walbrook’s estuarine junction with the Thames and provided for a development opportunity.
5. During the 1400s, the whole of the River Walbrook was canalised, the masonry conduit of the period is beneath the Hall to this day.
6. A section of mediaeval or early Tudor pavement, levelled to the top of the Walbrook’s conduit, and the foundations of our old Hall survive beneath the Court Range.
7. A medieval drain, designed to discharge from our old Hall into the Walbrook, or its canalisations, remains to the north of the pavement.
8. Additional conduits survive at sub floor level in the basement, helping to refine understanding of early water and waste management in the Hall.
9. The remnants of masonry under-crofts to the Tudor period timber houses built along College Street remain in our southern courtyard.
10. An important section of original carpentry to the rebuilt Hall is present beneath the Court Range.
11. Considerable evidence has been exposed of the Hall’s interface with areas damaged during the Great Fire of 1666.