The Archaeological study on Lion Green by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) has been released to Croydon Council. Excavations of the old car park where carried out in 2015 revealing two late-Roman burials and an undated dog burial; a Saxon burial dated to the late 6th early 7th century by a glass vessel. In addition, two disturbed graves were also found. A further excavation took place at the Lion Green Road car park between 15th March and 9th April 2021, for CField the developer, and again a year later.
The 2021 excavations uncovered a further 12 inhumation burials. This was followed by a series of three watching briefs between 7th and 31st March 2022, when an additional six burials were discovered, one of which led to the hand excavation of exposed features. All graves appear to be Saxon and six had iron knives buried with them. They were aligned south-west to north-east and some were coffined. There were also at least three empty burial cuts that can probably be attributed to investigations undertaken in 1912–13, when a cemetery was found and skeletons were removed. These are now in the Natural History Museum and one skull is in the Horniman Museum. This work comprises the final phases of an archaeological investigation that began in 2015. The full post excavation assessment can be found on the Croydon Council website and contains images and further information courtesy of MOLA.
