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Archaeological investigations in Duke Street, London W1 during 2010 have opened a window onto a rarely excavated conservation area within the Portman Estate. An inauspicious dump of domestic rubbish laid in preparation for the construction of 18th-century townhouses has provided a tightly dated window onto the tastes and fashions of the West End c. 1765–74. To the 18th-century scavenger and builder, several cartloads of pottery, a by-product of the dust-trade, would have been the perfect material to consolidate waterlogged ground. To the archaeologist, this nationally significant assemblage, representing at least 436 vessels, evokes the lives and leisure activities of the gentry and middle classes within one of London’s great estates.