Many of the artefacts in the collections of the Museum of London have come from the valley of the River Walbrook which flowed through the centre of Roman London and excavations in this area are always of great potential interest. This well-illustrated booklet is a popular interim account of the spectacular excavation carried out by Pre-Construct Archaeology at Drapers' Gardens in the City of London, the site of the 1960s tower designed by Richard Seifert. The site lay at the confluence of three channels in the Upper Walbrook valley and the waterlogged conditions contributed to the remarkable preservation of both structures and finds. The booklet traces the history of the site from the construction of a simple corduroy trackway, with the very early date of the spring of a.d. 62, to the development of Drapers' Hall and gardens and finally to the construction of the new building with its dramatic roof gardens.

The main focus of the book is of course on Roman London. Contemporary with the trackway in the early Roman period were several infant burials, still in their wooden boxes. The discovery of a complete wooden door, only the second to be found in London, permits discussion of the techniques of timberwork and joinery, while effectively demonstrating the preservation of the woodwork, with impressive site photographs. A timber palisade cutting the timber trackway was constructed around a.d. 70 and with a probable height of about 2 m, appears to have been a defensive structure. The evidence for land reclamation in the Upper Walbrook valley is discussed briefly; this was followed by phases of intense building and industrialisation in the later first and second centuries, demonstrated by the excavation of many roadside buildings.

Much of the booklet is devoted to the great wealth of artefactual evidence from the site. This is arranged by themes covering aspects of daily life, such as ‘Religion’ and ‘Trade and Industry’, noteworthy for its discussion of carpentry and leather working. The section on ‘Animal Bone’ describes how the various parts of the carcass were used and ‘Diet and Environment’ introduces botanical and faunal evidence. The chapter entitled ‘Literature and Writing’ illustrates a selection of the inscriptions from the site, chiefly graffiti on pottery. Although fragments of wooden writing-tablets were recovered, none bore significant text, but the elaborately decorated lid of an inkwell similar to others in the London collections serves as a reminder of other methods of writing.

Despite the destruction of late Roman levels by modern activity, several late features survived, among which were four timber-lined wells. One contained the most remarkable discovery, a hoard of 20 metal vessels, in copper alloy, pewter and iron, superbly preserved in the anaerobic conditions. These have already received much attention, with a temporary display at the Museum of London and a preliminary report by J. Gerrard (Britannia 40 (2009), 163–83); this latter affords a welcome opportunity to see a selection of photographs in full colour. The hoard was deposited after a.d. 375, on numismatic evidence, but the vessels, which include some extremely rare and important examples, vary widely in date. They were accompanied by a broken and bent bracelet and the bones of a young deer, both hinting at ritual deposition, and while the reason for the burial of the hoard remains a matter of speculation, the excavators have been able to reconstruct the sequence of deposition with some precision. A double-page strip cartoon showing the burial is an interesting attempt at communicating a complex subject.

The book is written in a popular style and is a good and accessible introduction to this major site. The photographs and illustrations are well chosen and display the remarkable structures and finds to full advantage, with good use of contemporary iconographic evidence and artefacts from elsewhere in the Empire. It is accompanied by a DVD of the excavations, commissioned by the Drapers' Company, which effectively demonstrates the complexity of the site, giving excellent footage of the preserved timbers. The cover illustration, showing the reconstructed Roman street superimposed on the buildings of the modern city is a lively reminder of what lay beneath the ground. We look forward with anticipation to the full publication of this important site and its finds.