2023-09-30-accounts

168th ANNUAL REPORT OF COUNCIL FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION YEAR ENDING 30[TH] SEPTEMBER 2023

All five Council meetings held during this year were online via the Zoom platform. The Society’s Committees have continued to function either online via Zoom or have returned to in person meetings in respect of the Historic Buildings and Conservation Committee and the Publications Committee. The Society has also set up a joint Working Party to look at the Furture of LAMAS and ways to increase the Membership.

The Society continues to be represented at meetings of the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Excavation Committee and the Council for British Archaeology London.

Lecture meetings (report by Kathryn Stubbs)

The lecture series programme ran from October 2022 to May 2023 and included a joint lecture with the Prehistoric Society, held in conjunction with CifA London Archaeological Group. The lectures are announced in the Newsletter, on the website, social media and the diary page of London Archaeologist . On-going concerns about the COVID 19 pandemic meant that the lectures, with the exception of the AGM and Presidential Address and the May lecture, were held on Zoom, booked through Eventbrite. Council would like to thank lecturers and members for their understanding at this time. Lectures are recorded, on agreement with the lecturer, and are available on YouTube after the event.

Lectures were well attended and attracted a wide audience including attendees from and outside London, Europe and the US, helping to raise the profile of London’s archaeology and history.

The October lecture was given by Claire Cogar, Director, Archaeology, Iceni Projects, on ‘Middlesex Annex: Excavating the Cleveland Street Workhouse and the anatomisation of London’s Poor’. The Workhouse building, part of the former Middlesex Hospital, was closed in 2010, and is to be reused as part of the site. In the archaeological evaluation and subsequent excavation, over 1,000 skeletons were recovered, with many of the burials having evidence of extensive dissection and autopsy, which has fundamentally changed understanding of early medical practices in central London. Also recorded were structural remains relating to earlier phases of the workhouse buildings, including kitchens and the chapel. An oral history project ‘Social Memory and Oral Histories of the Middlesex Hospital Annex’ is being carried out. Unfortunately we were unable to hold the lecture In November due to difficulties with internet connections. In December, Harvey Sheldon gave a lecture on ‘The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood’. A series of excavations in the 1960’s and 1970’s revealed evidence of pottery production with remains of kilns and a range of cooking, eating and drinking vessels. Production appears to have begun in the mid1st century AD and continued for a century or more. Examples of pots similar in form and fabric have been found on sites in Roman London leading to adoption of terms such as the “Highgate Wood pottery industry’. Reconstruction of a kiln was described and the lecture was amply illustrated with images from the 1960’s and 1970’s excavations. The January lecture was given by Professor Dominic Perring, UCL, Institute of Archaeology, on ‘London in the Roman World’. The lecture, based on his new book, described the growth and character of London, shedding new light on its history and that of the Roman Empire. This was illustrated by a wealth of images of recent and past archaeological excavations and supported by details of the precision of dendrochronological dating. In March, Hazel Forsyth, Museum of London, gave a lecture on ‘A Work in Progress: a new display for the Cheapside Hoard’. The London Museum, which will open in West Smithfield, will have a dedicated permanent gallery to house the Cheapside Hoard. It will be displayed alongside historic items from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths’ collection to provide context to the goldsmithing and jewellery trades. The design process for the new gallery and its place within the new museum was described as well as new evidence for this significant collection. The April lecture was given by Jane Sidell on A Virtual Tour of the Maritime Greenwich

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World Heritage Site’. The history and significance of Greenwich and its Royal Park were described with a wealth of historic maps, images and photographs. The long royal associations have transformed the landscape from a deer hunting park to the Palace of Greenwich, of which the Queens House is the last surviving building. The palace was altered and became the Royal Hospital of Seamen as part of master plan by Christopher Wren. Wren also designed the Royal Observatory, the earliest purpose built scientific building in Britain. The challenges of making adaptions in a sensitive historic setting were also described, for example, the park was a spectacular setting for the equestrian events of the 2012 London Olympics. The Joint Prehistoric Society and LAMAS lecture in May was held in conjunction with CIfA London Archaeological Group. This lecture was held on Zoom and in person, thanks to the kind assistance of Jacobs. Andy Daykin, MOLA, gave a lecture on the ‘Excavation of a Roman Cemetery, hoard and prehistoric remains and post-medieval remains at Principal Place, London’. Excavations carried out between 2011 and 2016 revealed two areas of Roman cemetery with inhumations, cremations and a large hoard of late Roman coins. There was a rare and significant find of remains of pits containing prehistoric pottery. The post medieval evidence included remains of 17th-18th century buildings and yards and remains of the early 19th century Curtain Road gasworks.

The AGM and Presidential Address was held in person at The Gallery, Alan Baxter Associates. Our President, Gillian Tindall gave a fascinating and richly illustrated account of ‘The Long History of Conservation’, covering the interest in ‘relics’ and ruins from the 17th century onwards. This was an updated version of her address which was given on Zoom in 2021.

LAMAS Lates (report by Jane Sidell)

A series of well-attended LAMAS Late events were held over the year, starting with a Halloween trip to the Spitalfields Charnel House in October 2022, a 14th century building preserved in Bishops Square close to Liverpool Street station. This was followed in 2023 with a walk in the City of London celebrating Kathy Ross' new book, Bollardology! A visit to the newly presented Vine St Roman Wall followed and finally at the end of August, Robert Stephenson lead a fascinating tour of Kensal Green cemetery.

Newsletter, Website and Publicity (report by Jane Wheeler and Karen Thomas)

The three editions of the Newsletter published in 2023 were well-received by our members. The usual information on LAMAS events was published, including conferences, Lates, and the lecture series. A number of contributions dealt with historical and archaeological topics. As potential planning changes and the associated threat to the historical environment (below and above ground) begins to become increasingly probable (with legislation pending), the Newsletter is becoming a vehicle to disseminate details of development and projects that require objection and the input of an organisation such as LAMAS. The Newsletter is going from strength to strength.

Our YouTube channel is proving very popular with members and we endeavour to add as many of our conference talks and lectures as possible for anyone who couldn’t make the actual event. The Society has also begun to look at revamping its website (see the Working Party report below) with the aim of updating the software and refreshing its design and structure.

Our Social Media platforms (Facebook, Twitter (X) and Instagram are all still helping to bring LAMAS and London’s history and archaeology to a larger audience. If anyone would be interested in helping us with our Facebook page we would love to hear from you!

Membership (report by John Shemilt)

I took over as Membership Secretary from Fiona Haughey in December 2022 and got to work creating a definitive membership spreadsheet based on the information from Fiona and information and help provided by the Treasurer and the Secretary. Fiona had kindly produced the Transaction mailing list for Transactions Vol. 72 just before the handover. The revised membership spreadsheet meant that by late January I could start chasing members who had not paid for the previous and current years and for whom we had e-mail addresses. By the end of September 2023

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this resulted in a 7% increase in the 21/22 membership and along with new members a 31% increase in the number of paid-up members since the end of January 2023, ending the 22/23 year with 488 members. This number exceeds the 477 reported in Transactions vol. 72 for 20/21 and marks the first increase in members since the membership peak in 2002/03.

At the start of September 2023, all members were written to either by e-mail or by letter with the LAMAS Newsletter, providing information about their membership. This resulted in more than 70 early payments for 23/24. Several other changes to help improve communications with members and improve the administration of membership have been looked at and will continue to be considered. This includes making it simpler for members to Gift Aid their subscriptions. The Working Party on the Future of LAMAS is actively looking at the possibility of a replacement website that will provide further opportunities to improve interactions with our members.

Working Party on the Future of LAMAS (report by John Schofield and Kathryn Stubbs, Chairs)

This working party met several times during the year. It discussed the need for a more explicit LAMAS mechanism to handle pronouncements on external matters, particularly high profile planning applications and threats to heritage matters, archaeological and built heritage; a Speaking Out policy paper was prepared in draft. A society policy on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion was drafted and agreed at Council in November 2022. The working party also discussed improvement to the Society website and ideas for increasing the membership. Students at the Institute of Archaeology of University College London are to be introduced to LAMAS membership and activities.

Research Fund (report by Karen Thomas)

The Research Fund for this year was launched late in 2022 and we decided to offer the Grant to 2 very different projects. The first is ‘The Roman Gardens of Londinium’, a collaborative research project on the botanical landscape of Roman London which will hopefully lead into a larger community project aimed at designing, planting and maintaining a small Roman garden in London. The second was for scientific analysis of skeletal remains of two individuals uncovered at The Chapel Royal and Royal Peculiar of St Peter ad Vincula at HM Tower of London to try to date the remains and find out more about these individuals. We look forward to seeing the results of both projects in the coming year.

Publications Committee (report by John Schofield, Chair, and committee members)

The Committee met three times during the year. Volume 72 of Transactions was published in November 2022. It has xiv + 375 pages, the largest number for many years, and contained ten articles, a reviews section, and a tribute to the late Derek Keene, an eminent London historian who was also a former President of the Society. The wide range of papers included reports on excavations in the City of London, West Ham, Camden and Clerkenwell; and a research paper funded by the City of London Archaeological Trust (CoLAT) on Roman lead-alloy spoons from Londinium which provides a new corpus of this material. History articles discussed the attempts of Richard Whittington (Lord Mayor of London three times between 1397 and 1420) to regulate the London brewers and a newly discovered Ralph Treswell survey of part of Clerkenwell in 1587.

Archaeology Committee (report by Jon Cotton, Secretary)

The Committee met remotely via Zoom four times during the year, in October, January, April and August. Reports on fieldwork and other matters were regularly received from MOLA, PreConstruct Archaeology Ltd, the AOC Archaeology Group, and from GLAAS.

Issues of concern to the Committee over the year include the abolition by the Corporation of London of its Assistant Director: Historic Environment post. Letters written to the Corporation drew a positive response, and it is encouraging to know that GLAAS are now in a position to provide formal independent advice to the City regarding its built and buried heritage.

Another issue that has exercised the Committee is the future of the London Archaeological Archive. The difficulties facing LAC are also widespread nationally and the Committee has offered

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LAMAS’s support to the Museum of London in seeking to achieve a workable solution. Discussions are ongoing, and we look forward to a positive outcome.

In other matters, the Committee has responded to LAMAS’s Speaking Out Policy document. A sub-group of the Committee has continued to meet to examine various options for a conference on Roman London, in conjunction with King’s College London, and The London Archaeologist magazine.

Finally, the Committee organised the 59th Annual Archaeology Conference, which was held via Zoom in March 2023. Once again this was professionally facilitated by SyncSkills and featured a series of ‘live’ and recorded presentations.

At the start of the meeting the 2022 Ralph Merrifield Award was given to Kathryn Stubbs for her long service to the capital’s built and buried heritage. Following this the morning session contained presentations on Bronze Age barrows excavated at Spelthorne Leisure Centre, Staines; Medieval and later land use beyond Aldgate; excavations at 4-5 Frederick’s Place, City; and work undertaken at Coleman Street and Moorgate, City.

The afternoon session was devoted to Recent Work in Roman Towns and was addressed by Jake Weekes (Canterbury); Glynn Davis (Colchester); Kris Lockyear (St Albans); Mike Fulford (Silchester); and Dominic Perring (London).

The Committee is keen to revert to a live format for the 60[th] Annual Conference, and this will be staged as a hybrid event at the Museum in Docklands in March 2024.

Local History Committee (report by John Price, Chair)

The Committee met on three occasions, October, February, and May. The members of the Committee were John Price (Chair), Maggie Bolton, Pat Gough, Oliver Harris, Mike Marriott, and Lorraine Woodleigh. Alex Werner stepped down from the Committee in November 2022.

Committee meetings have moved from the Museum of London to 11 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3RE.

The Annual Local History Conference took place at the Museum of London in November 2022 on the theme of ‘The Museum of London: A Celebration’.

Papers presented were as follows:

‘Curating Modern London’ (Dr Cathy Ross); ‘The Museum and its early galleries’ (Dr Chris Ellmers); ‘History, Archaeology, and the Museum of London’ (Harvey Sheldon); ‘Conserving the Museum of London’s collections’ (Helen Ganiaris); ‘Ever Changing London: the Museum of London’s temporary exhibitions’ (Alex Werner); ‘Looking back and looking forward’ (Sharon Ament) The winners of the 2022 Local History Publication awards were presented during the annual conference and were as follows:

Best Newsletter (£50 prize): Borough of Twickenham Local History Society for their newsletters edited by John Sheaf.

Best Journal (£100 prize): Richmond History: Journal of the Richmond Local History Society edited by Robert Smith.

Best book (£100 prize): Hornsey Historical Society for The Hornsey Enclosure Act 1813 by David Frith.

Historic Buildings and Conservation Committee (report by John Ricketts, HBCC representative to LAMAS Council)

HBCC responded in writing to 42 planning applications received by London boroughs over the 12 months, an approximately similar number to the previous year and representing around 7% of the total applications considered by the Committee. The majority of our responses were objections, focussing on the harmful impact of proposed alterations to individual listed buildings or, in the case of larger schemes, to the setting of these listed buildings and/or surrounding conservation areas.

The most high profile and largest of the planning proposals considered was the redevelopment of Liverpool Street Station and the former Great Eastern Hotel, which would involve the cantilevering of a 16-storey tower block over the Grade II* listed hotel building and inappropriate alterations to

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the Grade II listed station. The campaign against the proposal - the Liverpool Street Station Campaign (LISSCA), of which LAMAS is a member - was launched by The Victorian Society in February 2023. A planning application was submitted for the scheme in May 2023, though planning documents have not been uploaded to the City of London website for inspection as yet. HBCC continues to represent LAMAS on the LISSCA committee. In early May 2023 LAMAS and LISSCA wrote separately to the Secretary of State requesting that he call in the proposed scheme, but at that time the planning application had not yet been validated by the City of London and the Secretary of State declined to consider intervening.

Along with 366 others including The Victorian Society, HBCC also objected in August 2023 to a nearby scheme - 55-65 Broad Street, EC2 - which would involve the construction of a 23-storey tower block cantilevered over the Grade II listed bath house, which it would completely overwhelm and drastically impact the setting of.

On the Committee membership front, we said goodbye (with many thanks) to our Chair, Rob Briggs, who stepped down in December, and to longstanding Committee member Pat Clarke, who stepped down for health reasons. In September 2023 we welcomed on to the Committee John Schofield, Chair of the LAMAS Publications Committee and Secretary of the City of London Archaeological Trust (CoLAT). We remain on the lookout for new members, particularly those who are familiar with London boroughs for which we have no current coverage, so please do get in touch if you are interested in joining us.

BY DIRECTION OF COUNCIL Harvey Sheldon Karen Thomas Chairman of Council Honorary Secretary

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LONDON AND MIDDLESEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH SEPTEMBER 2023

2022 Incoming Resources £ 7,734 Subscriptions 766 Gift Aid 59 Sale of Publications 26 Royalties and Licensing 18,500 Grants for LAMAS_Transactions_ 1,395 Archaeology Conference 560 Local History Conference 560 Lecture Series Income 154 Interest 5,005 Donations 1,260 Sale of LAMAS library books 36,019 Total Incoming Resources -5,483 Net (Incoming) Resources £30,536	2023 £ 10,182 2,100 221 81 19,110 1,080 1,683 362 1,456 55 - 36,330 -7,979 £28,351	2022 Resources Expended 2023 £ £ Publications 24,714 - LAMAS_Transactions_ 20,414 1,026 - Newsletter 2,072 1,424 Archaeology Conference 1,521 1,337 Local History Conference 1,991 550 - Publication Awards 150 288 Lecture Series Expense 327 247 Postage, Printing and Stationer 673 167 Bank Charges 185 773 Computing 888 10 Miscellaneous Costs 130 £30,536 Total Resources Expended £28,351

BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2023

2022 ASSETS £ 13,147 Bank and Cash Balances 88,215 Savings Accounts - Payments in Advance 101,362 Total Assets Less: LIABILITIES - Subscriptions in advance 3,470 Creditors 3,964 Future Publications 20,726 Research Grants 28,160 Total Liabilities £73,202 Total Net Assets	2023 £ 14,094 95,649 1,500 111,243 1,987 3,385 3,964 20,726 30,062 £81,181	2022 FUNDS OF THE SOCIETY 2023 £ £ Restricted Funds 7,105 Publications Fund 7,105 Unrestricted Funds 60,614 Funds brought forward 66,097 Net Incoming Resources 5,483 for the Year 7,979 66,097 Total Unrestricted Funds 74,076 £73,202 Total Funds £81,181

Notes to the Accounts

1. The Statement of Financial Activities and Balance Sheet have been prepared using the ‘natural classification’ as permitted by the Charities Act 2011.

2. Research Grants represent amounts set aside to promote non-corporate members' research interests, and at 30t September 2023 grants of £16,716 had been allocated but not yet paid pending completion of outstanding pro

3. Use of the Publications Fund requires the sanction of the donor, Historic England.

Signed: HL Sheldon Signed: RG Densem Chairman Hon. Treasurer 18th January 2024

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Treasury (Report by Robin Densem, honorary treasurer)

The state of the finances at the end of the LAMAS year 1st October 2022 – 30[th] September 2023 was satisfactory. We ended the LAMAS year 2022-23 with a surplus of £7,979 of incoming resources over expenditure for the year. The comparable figure for the LAMAS year 2021-22 was a surplus of £5,483.

Our 2022-23 figures were greatly helped by the efforts of our membership secretary which saw subscription income rise to £10,182, against £7,734 in 2021-22.

Our income in 2022-23 benefitted from gift aid at £2,100 compared with £766 the previous year. The rise reflects gift aid claimed in 2022-23 on the generous donation of £5,000 given in memory of our late member, Mrs Lorraine Piercy, by her husband Keith Piercy in March 2022.

Our total net financial assets were £81,181 at the end of 2022-23, compared with £73,202 at the end of 2021-22.

We are very likely to need to spend money on a new website in 2023-24 and on its increased running costs thereafter (our present website platform provider charges us c. £37.31 a month at present, up from £20.44 a month last year).

The work of preparing statements of income and expenditure and balance sheets has been greatly aided and on many occasions actually carried out by Stuart Forbes. LAMAS’s financial records from which the accounts are drawn are held in a ‘cash book’, comprising an Excel table with many rows and columns.

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Independent Examinevs Report to the Trustees of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (Registered Charity No. 267552) I report to the trustees on my examination of ts accounts of the London & Middlesex Archaedogical Society (Ihe Trusf) for the year ended 30 September 2023 set out on page one. As the charity's trustees. you are reswnsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance wrth the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act"). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all Ihe ap￿ICable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. I have a)mpl8t8d my èxamination. I confirm that rK) material matters have come to my attention in connection with th8 examination which giv8s me cause to believe that in, any material ￿Spe￿. th8 accounting re¢￿dS wwe not kept in accordanc8 with $8Ction 130 of the Charities Act. or Ihe accounts did not accord V￿th the accounling records." or the accounts did not compty with the applicab18 r8quirements con￿mIng th8 fomi and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'lrue and fairf view which is not a matter considered as part of an independenl examination. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connèction with th8 examirkgtion to which attention should be drawn in this report in ord8r to enable a proper understsnding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: -( L.ti/L Date: Edward L8e-Smtth 19 Lawrie Park Crescent London SE26 6HH Page 2