MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology)

In the last decade MOLA published over 90 academic and popular books and manuals, and has developed processes to ensure the highest standards. Publications include both English Heritage- and developer-funded work but have been joined by significant work for other clients, who are using MOLA as a publishing outlet for their own work.

MOLA's Monograph and Studies Series have in general developed a common structure: an introduction; a chronological narrative describing the site sequence interwoven with the specialists’ evidence; thematic chapters; conclusions; and appendices with supporting data which cater for the specialist reader; these data are supplemented by CD-ROMs and online resources. The integrated approach requires a high level of collaboration and dialogue among the project team, and a focus on strong research aims within regional and national research frameworks and strategies. The research aims are set out before fieldwork begins and are revised at the assessment stage. This approach is underpinned and facilitated by their in-house team, supplemented by experts based in academic institutions. It also requires high levels of IT expertise in their developing relational database and geographic information system (GIS). Quality assurance is essential, supported by MOLA's in-house Managing Editor. Finally the graphics and photography teams ensure high-quality illustrations and products that convey information with maximum clarity. The success of the integrated approach and the quality of the publications is conveyed in many positive reviews written by peers in archaeological journals and news items. As well as the many books MOLA also submit numerous articles to local, regional and national peer-reviewed journals. These papers are just as important to the publisher and their clients, and deliver the results of archaeological work to the target audience as required by both client and curator.In the last decade MOLA published over 90 academic and popular books and manuals, and has developed processes to ensure the highest standards. Publications include both English Heritage- and developer-funded work but have been joined by significant work for other clients, who are using MOLA as a publishing outlet for their own work.

Unearthing the A14 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 100
ISBN: 9781907586552
Pub Date: 31 May 2024
Description:
The archaeological excavations in advance of A14 Road Improvement Scheme in Cambridgeshire are among the biggest and most complex ever undertaken in the UK, revealing important archaeology of prehistoric, Roman, early medieval and medieval date.The fifty finds in this book have been chosen for the stories they tell us. These artefacts are often the only evidence for many of the thousands of people who lived here before us.
Parishioner and Pauper Burials from St James Westminster (1695–1790) Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 201
ISBN: 9781907586521
Pub Date: 10 Nov 2022
Series: MoLAS Monograph
Illustrations: 170
Description:
Additional burial areas for the parish of St James Westminster in the 17th to 18th century were excavated in 2008–9. As the northern part of the parish around Soho grew and its population increased from the mid 17th century, pressure mounted on burial space in the churchyard on Piccadilly and on existing support structures for the least fortunate members of society. In response, the lower ground (the early extramural burial ground, 1695–1733) and the upper ground (the later extramural burial ground, 1733–90) were opened in succession, along with the new workhouse complex (1725–1913) and the workhouse burial ground (1733–93).
In the Northern Cemetery of Roman London Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 236
ISBN: 9781907586514
Pub Date: 28 Oct 2020
Series: MoLAS Monograph
Illustrations: 162
Description:
London’s Spitalfields Market was the location of one of the city’s largest archaeological excavations, carried out by MOLA between 1991 and 2007. This book presents the archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence for Roman activity here, to the north-east of the urban settlement and the site of a series of burial grounds on the east side of Ermine Street. Burial began here c AD 120 and continued into the 4th century AD.
The Anglo-Saxon Princely Burial at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 108
ISBN: 9781907586477
Pub Date: 08 May 2019
Illustrations: 135
Description:
In 2003 archaeologists discovered an intact princely burial between busy Priory Crescent and the railway line near Priory Park in Prittlewell. A find of international significance, this is the richest and most important Anglo-Saxon burial found since the 1939 discovery of the great ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. The lavishly furnished wooden chamber beneath a mound contained the coffin of a high-status man, evidently a Christian, who died at the end of the 6th century AD.
The Medieval Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital and the Bishopsgate Suburb Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 315
ISBN: 9781907586484
Pub Date: 30 Mar 2019
Series: MoLAS Monograph
Illustrations: 245
Description:
London’s Spitalfields Market was the location of one of the city’s largest archaeological excavations, carried out by MOLA between 1991 and 2007. This book presents the archaeological and documentary evidence for medieval activity here, on the north-eastern fringe of the historic city, and the site of the Augustinian priory and hospital of St Mary without Bishopsgate, later known as St Mary Spital. Large areas of the medieval precinct have been explored, making this by far the most intensively investigated medieval hospital, and one of the most extensively investigated monastic establishments, in Britain.
A Journey through Time Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 60
ISBN: 9781907586422
Pub Date: 31 May 2018
Description:
Has the Thames always looked like it does today, confined to the same course, muddy, brackish and tidal? Through analysis of the archaeology investigated along the Crossrail south-east line, which diverts from the main west–east route across the Thames floodplain from Stepney Green to Abbey Wood, this book tells the story of the lower Thames throughout the Holocene (from c. 10,000 years ago to the present).
Outside Roman London Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 228
ISBN: 9781907586446
Pub Date: 31 May 2018
Description:
This book describes the archaeological evidence from excavations at Crossrail's Broadgate ticket hall at Liverpool Street, from the Late Iron Age to the late Roman marsh formation. The site lay 120m north of the town defences in a landscape dominated by a former tributary of the Walbrook stream, which ran along the west edge of the site. The earliest Roman activity focused on draining the site sufficiently to allow burial and road building in the area.
The New Churchyard Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 300
ISBN: 9781907586439
Pub Date: 31 May 2018
Description:
Modern Liverpool Street was once on the margins of London: the story of its development – from the medieval marsh of Moorfields to municipal, non-parochial, burial ground and later suburb – is illustrated by archaeological investigations undertaken as part of the Crossrail Central development. Excavation also recovered a wealth of well-preserved artefactual evidence for the local inhabitants, from the 16th century to the 19th-century households of Brokers Row. The New Churchyard, or 'Bethlem' as it was later known, was established after the severe plague of 1563 and was in use from 1569 to 1739; archaeological evidence suggests c 25,000 people in total were buried here.
Crosse and Blackwell 1830-1921 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 100
ISBN: 9781907586378
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2016
Series: Crossrail Archaeology
Description:
This book presents the results of the archaeological excavations in advance of the redevelopment by Crossrail Limited of the Eastern Ticket Hall at Tottenham Court RoadUnderground Station, charting the history of one of the great enterprises of Victorian and Edwardian Britain – Crosse and Blackwell.After its move from King Street (close to present-day Shaftesbury Avenue) in 1838 to Soho Square in London’s West End, food manufacturer Crosse and Blackwell built and converted property on a number of streets between Soho Square and Hog Lane (later Charing Cross Road) into warehousing and factory space, enabling production of its food sauces, pickles, vinegar, jams and marmalades on a vast, industrial, scale. With a royal appointment, granted in 1837, the unprecedented use of celebrity chefs to either develop or endorse its products and the branding and labelling of its lines that referenced Britain’s imperial pretensions, Crosse and Blackwell was soon able to dominate not only the domestic market but compete globally.
Glass working on the margins of Roman London Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 170
ISBN: 9781907586330
Pub Date: 01 Feb 2016
Description:
Excavations in the upper Walbrook valley, in a marginal area in the north-west of the Roman city, recovered over 70kg of broken vessel glass and production waste from a nearby workshop, giving new insights into the workings of the glass industry and its craftsmen. The area was developed in the early 2nd century AD, with evidence of domestic buildings and property boundaries. Two later buildings constructed in the mid 2nd century AD may have been associated with the glass-working industry.

St Marylebone’s Paddington Street North Burial Ground:

Excavations at Paddington Street, London W1, 2012–13
Format: Paperback
Pages: 135
ISBN: 9781907586385
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2015
Description:
During the 18th century the expansion of the wealthy London parish of St Marylebone led to the development of two additional graveyards to relieve pressure on the church and churchyard on Marylebone High Street. The latest of these, on the north side of Paddington Street, was in use between 1772 and 1853. Archaeologists recorded 386 burials from 124 single, stacked and brick-lined graves at the western edge of this ground.
Conservation and Discovery Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 193
ISBN: 9781907586392
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2015
Description:
A major conservation programme took place between 1998 and 2003 on one of Europe's greatest medieval painted wooden ceilings. Investigation and analysis were an integral part of this conservation workin the former Benedictine abbey church of Peterborough. The knowledge gained and the discoveries made during that time, as well as the conservation programme itself, are documented and fully illustrated here.
An early Roman fort and urban development on Londinium’s eastern hill Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 260
ISBN: 9781907586323
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2015
Description:
Excavation in 1997–2003 produced important new evidence for the development of Roman London. The site lay north-east of the bridge, towards the edge of the early town. Sparse commercial and domestic ribbon development here alongside early roads was ended by the Boudican revolt of AD 60/61.
The Spitalfields suburb 1539–c 1880 Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 360
ISBN: 9781907586293
Pub Date: 30 May 2015
Description:
One of London’s largest archaeological excavations took place at Spitalfields Market, on the north-eastern fringe of the historic city, between 1991 and 2007. This book presents an archaeological history from the 16th to the 19th centuries, reconnecting the archaeological assemblages with documentary evidence in order to describe the place, people and possessions of the early modern suburb of Spitalfields. Following the closure of the medieval priory of St Mary Spital in the 1530s and the construction of private mansions, the largely residential enclave grew into the suburb of Spitalfields in the 17th century as landowners built clusters of houses in the former fields and developer-builders constructed some of London’s first terraced houses in the 1680s over the former military training ground.
The upper Walbrook valley cemetery of Roman London Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 215
ISBN: 9781907586255
Pub Date: 30 May 2015
Description:
Six excavations (1987–2007) at Finsbury Circus on the north side of the City of London uncovered over 130 Romano-British burials, part of the upper Walbrook cemetery, to the west of the better-known ‘northern’ cemetery (around Bishopsgate). Set within an area of marginal land, traversed by meandering tributary streams of the Walbrook, the cemetery provides intriguing insights into the management of burial space and attitudes to the dead, and a solution to one of the mostintriguing problems of London’s Roman archaeology – the origin of the ‘Walbrook skulls’.The cemetery was in use by the end of the 1st century AD, with most activity dated to c AD 120–200, but occasionalinterments continued into the 4th century AD.
The Evolution and Exploitation of the Avon Flood Plain at Bath and the Development of the Southern Suburb Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 300
ISBN: 9781907586286
Pub Date: 05 Feb 2015
Description:
The construction of a new shopping centre afforded MOLA the opportunity to investigate a 3.55ha site located between the north bank of the River Avon and the southern defences of Roman and later Bath. Extensive geoarchaeological work allowed the modelling and dating of the main stages in the evolution of this part of the Avon flood plain from at least the Late Devensian (23–11.