Blackie the cat and other finds

The Shoreditch Park excavation involved three trenches. The main trench was located on the northern side of what had been 31-34 Dorchester Street. Digging revealed that each house comprised a front room, dining room, kitchen and outside washroom and toilet, located in a back yard, with an adjacent back garden. It was possible to interpret where rooms were located, as well as where the coal was kept, doors hung and fires were lit.

At some stage in their history, possibly in the early 20th century, the homes were extended to increase the size of the kitchen and to add the washroom and toilet. Previously the inhabitants used cesspits to dispose of their rubbish and sewage. These cesspits produced fascinating insights into the lives of the residents of Dorchester Street because they contained domestic rubbish from the houses. For instance, they showed that the residents of number 33 enjoyed meals of oysters eaten off blue and white decorated plates, washed down with ginger beer.

The finds from the excavations bring us into direct contact with people from the past. They ranged from pieces of a 16th-century stoneware wine jug, which dated from when rubbish wsa brought from the Tudor city of London to fertilise the fields of Hoxton, to a pair of 1950s' nylon stockings.

Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the items found were war toys, such as a model plane, a lead soldier and a toy gun. These items shed some light on the children who grew up surrounded by the debris of war. In one of the back gardens a skeleton of a cat was found. Amazingly, visitors to the site who had once lived in the houses were able to identify it as 'Blackie, the lodger's cat'.

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