Crossbones Graveyard – The Hidden Graveyard of Sex Workers
Somewhere near London Bridge Station, there is a hidden graveyard, called Crossbones Graveyard with a large red metal gate adorned with hundreds of colourful ribbons. This graveyard has an extraordinary story.
@urbanadventurerldn 🪦☠️ [BLOG POST IN BIO] Crossbones Graveyard is the final resting place for over 15,000 harlots, paupers, criminals and those excluded from Christian burial The graveyard filled quickly and became so overcrowded by the early 1850s that the bodies were piled on the top of each other ☠️ It closed in 1853 and remained forgotten for 150 years until rediscovered by TfL while digging there to extend the Jubilee line A large number of bodies were exhumed and sent for examination to the Museum of London, some of which were later displayed Today the graveyard is maintained by volunteers and free to visit 🪦 7pm on 23th very month, a Vigil for the Outcast is being held and free to join 🕯️ #crossbonesgraveyard #graveyard #cemetery #londontiktok #spookyseason #hauntedplaces #halloween2024 #CapCut
If the Graveyard Could Talk…
Photo: Urban Adventurer
If Crossbones Graveyard could talk, it would tell the stories of the over 15,000 unfortunate people buried there.
It would tell you that during the medieval and Victorian times, this area was one of the poorest and most dangerous slums in London where all the otherwise prohibited activities were taken place.
Prostitution and bear-baiting pits were thriving here. Sex workers who worked at the brothels in Southwark were called the ‘Winchester Goose’ due to the fact that they were licenced under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester.
The graveyard would also tell you that life expectancy of those unfortunate enough to live at that area was dreadful due to violence and diseases that often knocked on the doors of the poorest and most vulnerable.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
If the soil of Crossbones Graveyard could talk, it would tell you how shockingly quickly it was filled up with prostitutes, paupers, criminals and those excluded from Christian burial, becoming the burial garden of the outcast.
If the wind over the soil could talk, it would whisper that thousands of the people resting in this soil are children aged 5 or under.
It would also tell you that the graveyard became so overcrowded by the early 1850s that the bodies were piled on the top of each other until the cemetery closed in 1853 and remained forgotten for 150 years.
The Rediscovery
Photo: Urban Adventurer
In the 1990s the Crossbones was accidentally rediscovered by TfL while digging there to extend the Jubilee line.
A large number of bodies were exhumed and sent for examination to the Museum of London, some of which were later displayed.
The examinations showed that most of the people had died from common diseases, such as tuberculosis, smallpox or scurvy and rickets.
Over half of the bodies exhumed were children’s indicating the tragic scale of child mortality.
Replica of a 16-year-old girl’s skull who has third stage syphilis
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Among the excavation of 148 bodied by the Museum of London, only one was found to have evidence of syphilis. The skeleton was estimated to be of a 16-year-old girl. She had third stage syphilis which means she had psychiatric disorders and a hole in her skull.
Third stage syphilis only occurs after 6-9 years of being continually transmitted. Crossbones Graveyard has a replica of this skull on which you can see the hole.
The site would have been forgotten again if local writer John Constable (aka John Crow) had not experienced a spiritual encounter of ‘The Goose’ whilst writing late at night.
According to John Constable a spirit of a medieval sex worker (‘The Goose’) visited him and made him write the following poem:
For tonight in Hell
They are tolling the bell
For the Whore that lay at the Tabard,
And well we know
How the carrion crow
Doth feast in our Cross Bones Graveyard.
Constable said he had never heard of Crossbones Graveyard before.
The poem later was performed at the Globe and Southward Cathedral and became the first of the series, called ‘The Southwark Mysteries.’
Photo: Urban Adventurer
As a result of the spiritual encounter, Constable and his friends championed the graveyard and turned the space into a garden of remembrance.
In 2004 they founded ‘Friends of Crossbones’, an informal network of sex workers, activists, poets and outsiders. In the same year on 23rd June, they conducted their first Vigil for the Outcast.
The ritual has been held on 7pm on the 23rd every month since then and free to visit.
In 2020 a permission granted a 30-year lease to Bankside Open Spaces Trust for Crossbones Graveyard to be protected and maintained as a public garden of remembrance.
Volunteering at Crossbones Graveyard
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Crossbones Graveyard always look for volunteers to join their team.
If you wish to become a volunteer click here to learn more about volunteer gardening sessions, Crossbones wardens and volunteer at Bankside Open Spaces Trust.
No experience needed to join. All you need is your enthusiasm and willingness to get stuck in.
Practical Info
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Address
Crossbones Graveyard & Garden of Remembrance | Redcross Way, London, SE1 1TA
Opening Hours
FREE to visit | NO booking required
Open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 12pm – 2pm
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