In May this year, Wessex Archaeology’s Built Heritage Team was commissioned to monitor the retrieval of a time capsule from below an existing foundation stone at the National Temperance Hospital site at Euston, London.
The site is undergoing a programme of phased demolition as part of on-going HS2 works, and due to a previously unrecorded time capsule being found in another area of the site from beneath an earlier foundation stone, it was decided that the removal of this later stone would be under close archaeological supervision.
The foundation stone was laid in 1884 to mark the construction of the latest phase of extension to the Hospital. After the foundation stone was removed, a glass jar was recovered from a square recess cut into the underside of the stone. The well-sealed jar bore the makers’ mark of Cannington and Shaw of St Helens. The jar was then carefully packaged unopened and sent to MOLA Headland Infrastructure for conservation and assessment of the contents.
Read about what was in the jar and more about the project here:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-41780383/the-secrets-underneath-euston-s-old-temperance-hospital
- http://londonist.com/london/history/victorian-time-capsules-uncovered-in-euston
And watch the full story here: