Egyptologist Ricardo Caminos

ARCHAEOLOGISTS trained to unearth the secrets of ancient Egypt have turned their attention to what lies beneath the pavements of Bloomsbury.

Based in Doughty Mews, the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) recently unveiled plans to redevelop its current building into a publicly-accessible archaeology ­centre.

In preparation for the building project, the Society has done some digging into the history of its Doughty Mews site – the results of which are now on display as part of an exhibition launched on Wednesday evening.

Led by archaeologist Stephanie Boonstra, the project has uncovered the history of the mews – with one discovery dating back to the 1600s, when much of London was still open farmland.

The Society was founded in the 1880s, and moved into Doughty Street 100 years later.

“We know that our history goes back to 1980 in this building, but we wanted to go back further,” said Ms Boonstra.

Boreholes dug to investigate the structural integrity of the ground below the building brought up “bricks and cobbles” from an earlier time.

Archaeologist Stephanie Boonstra

“They went really deep and we were able to find [fragments of pottery] in there,” Ms Boonstra said.

“As I myself am an Egyptologist, I don’t know anything about British pottery. So I spoke to someone at the Museum of London archaeology, and he said that some of the pottery shards date back to the 1600s, which is 200 years before the mews was constructed. It shows these [shards] were used for drainage in the fields that predates the mews itself.”

This fragment, dating from the mid-1600s, is now on display as part of the exhibition. “It was waiting 400 years for us to find it,” Ms Boonstra said.

Also on display is material collected by the distinguished late Egyptologist Ricardo Caminos, who lived next door to the EES in the 1980s.

Doughty Mews was originally built as a stable to serve the grand houses nearby. “Doughty Mews was constructed in the early 1800s as part of a wider development by the Doughty family,” Ms Boonstra said.

As part of the project, Ms Boonstra dug through the archives “to find the names of the people who lived in 4 Doughty Mews throughout the 1800s” and she added: “We know from the census records that lots of the people who lived in Doughty Mews were associated with horses, carriages or hackney coaches,” she said. It’s been amazing to actually read the names of the people who lived there over the course of 100 years.

“Sometimes it’s a bit sad when you look at the census records and you see that in 1881 there was a nine-month old baby living there, and then by 1891, the child of that same name is no longer on there. It makes you realise that Victorian England was not an easy place to live.”

Ms Boonstra said: “It’s not the kind of research that I usually do – I usually do Egypt – but it was really fun and it showed us how interesting our building is.”

Trees are now a ‘long-term’ risk for Society

LAST year, the Extra reported that the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) was at “long-term risk of damage… unless two lofty trees in the neighbouring garden are removed.”

The two plane trees, which are growing in a garden belonging to a property owned by One Housing, have the potential to undermine the back wall of the EES, museum bosses say.

But the removal of the trees has split opinion, with a group of local architects arguing that “there is no need to remove the trees”. “To remove such magnificent and robustly health trees would irrevocably alter a deeply cherished landscape,” the group wrote in a letter to the Extra last year.

The council has since given permission for the trees to be felled, but according to the EES, “this is now over to One Housing Group for action.”

A spokesperson for One Housing, part of The Riverside Group, said: “We are aware of ongoing concerns surrounding two London Plane trees situated at the bottom of the garden of our property, 8 Doughty Street.

“As this is an ongoing legal matter involving a number of parties, we are currently unable to provide comment.

“We will keep all involved parties informed as and when required.”