Excavations reveal thousands of Victorian jam jars and pickle pots

During the building of Crossrail in London, archaeologist discovered thousands of Victorian jam jars and pickle pots thrown into a cistern beneath a former nightclub in Tottenham Court Road.

Jars dumped in cistern (by AFP)

Archaeologists found more than 13000 pots in and old vault where the site of the new Elizabeth line crossrail station is being built. The area of the find was used by a large Crosse & Blackwell pottery factory as a dumping ground until 1921. The jars were discovered in a large cistern beneath a  former warehouse. The finds include bottles of Mushroom Catsup, Piccalilli pots and and jars for jam and marmalade.

Marmalade jars (by Crossrail)

The cistern was possibly used to power the steam engines to run the factory, but as the factory was redesigned in 1870 the cistern was taken out of use and served as a landfill site. Afterwards, in 1927 the warehouse was turned into a cinema and later into a nightclub in 1976. Finally it was demolished in 2011 to make way for the crossrail linking London with  south east.

Decorative jars (by Crossrail)

(after BBC News, AFP & Crossrail)

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