A watching brief was undertaken at 36, St Margaret's Street in October 1991 during the cutting of a lift shaft c. 4 m NE of the Hawks Lane frontage. The site code was STM91.

An interesting sequence of deposits was revealed. With the subsoil of gravel overlain by brickearth found 3.2m below the shop floor. This was sealed by a pre- or early Roman topsoil of grey silty loam. Cut from the surface of this deposit was a large pit or well, bearing traces of former timber lining. This feature was infilled with redeposited brickearth and the ground level had been artificially raised by the dumping of a 0.7m thick layer of mixed brickearth and sandy loam yielding late 1st century pottery. Above this lay a series of at least 4 internal clay floors dating to the Roman period, although no structural remans were identified and no dating evidence for the floors was found. These were sealed by a sandy loam with gravel and pebbles, interpreted as the edges of a nearby street. Levels overlying this wre obscured by shuttering.

No. 36 St Margaret's Street occupies a site close to the civic centre of the Roman town, in the northern corner of an insulae containing the theatre. Although the civic centre was probably laid out in the early 2nd, the presence of a mid to late 1st century well may indicate occupation against an early street, perhaps that aligned NE to SW, situated to the north of the property. The dumped materials sealing the well and earlier topsoil may best be associated with groundworks accompanying early 2nd century developments and the establishment of a building occupying the northern corner of a new insula block. The subsequent refloorings of a room within the building suggests the property survived for a reasonable period with at least part of the complex being taken down and the vacant ground covered with 'tailings' from the adjacent street.

Bennett, P. & Rady, J., 1992, 36 St Margaret's Street (Article in serial). SKE30815.