Rotherhithe Palace (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Platform Wharf

In the civil parish of Bermondsey Rotherhithe And Southwark.
In the historic county of Surrey.
Modern Authority of London Borough of Southwark.
1974 county of Greater London.
Medieval County of Surrey.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ348797
Latitude 51.50017° Longitude -0.05934°

Rotherhithe Palace has been described as a certain Palace.

There are no visible remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The site is on the South bank of the Thames with Cathey Street to the E, Paradise Street to the S and the Millpond Estate to the W. Documentary research, including "The King's Works", shows this site to be that of the Moated Royal Residence known to have been built in Rotherhithe for Edward III by 1361. At the beginning of this century substantial remains of a 5m high medieval stone wall were uncovered on this site. There is documentary evidence for use of the site as a Delft Ware pottery in the C17 with large dump of pottery waste/kiln furniture and associated industrial structures. Trial excavation from July 1986 to January 1987 by the Department of Greater London Archaeology has revealed substantial remains of the stone walls of the Inner Court building (a rectangular structure 30m x 30m with walls 1m thick and a tower at the NW corner), surrounded by an 8m wide moat with remains of a timber bridge, and the division of the Inner Court into small apartments or chambers. Wall survive to a height of window sills and tiled floors have also been found. In the NE corner of the Inner Court the tiled floor was found to overlay at least four earlier medieval surfaces on natural sandy clay of local extraction and containing several sherds of unbraded Roman pottery. "The King's Works" described the Outer Court as being S of the Moat and part of the eastern bank surrounding it has been revealed in excavation together with evidence, from a test pit, of medieval timber buildings. Remains of the C17 Delft Ware pottery have been uncovered in the Inner and Outer Court including two possible kilns and a very large and important dump of Delft pottery in the moat. (Greater London HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1001983, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number lo164
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 918320.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 090592/00/00.

Books
- Blatherwick, S. et al, 2009, 'Rotherhithe' in Simon Blathwick and Richard Bluer, Great houses, moats and mills on the south bank of the Thames: medieval and Tudor Southwark and Rotherhithe (Museum of London Archaeology Monograph 47) p. 4-48
  Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 246
  Hinton, Peter (ed), 1988, Excavations in Southwark 1973-76; Lambeth 1973-79 (Museum of London Department of Greater London Archaeology no.3) p. 484
  Colvin, H.M., 1986, 'Royal Gardens in Medieval England' in Elisabeth MacDougall (ed) Medieval Gardens (Washington D.C.) p. 15
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p. 989-994
Periodical Articles
- Norton, E., 1988, 'The moated manor house at Platform Wharf' London Archaeology Vol. 5.15 p. 395-401 online copy
  Evans, Sarah Jane, 1987 July, 'Rotherhithe's Royal Palace' History Today Vol. 37.7 p. 3-4
  1987, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1986' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 31 p. 132 online copy
  Richardson, B. (ed), 1987, 'Excavation Round-up' London Archaeologist Vol. 5.10 p. 276-7 online copy
  1986, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1985' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 30 p. 143 online copy
  Richardson, B. (ed), 1986, 'Excavation Round-up' London Archaeologist Vol. 5.6 p. 163 online copy
  Norman, P., 1907, 'Remains of an ancient building at Rotherhithe' Surrey Archaeological Collections Vol. 20 p. 132-42 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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