Crossbones Graveyard
A garden of remembrance for the future
In an unassuming hoarding on Redcross Way a gateway covered in glorious ribbons and sincere momentos commemorates the outcast dead buried at Crossbones Graveyard.
Tradition and history link the site here to a seventeenth century paupers graveyard, and the Tudor ‘Single Women’s Churchyard’ the ultimate, unconsecrated resting place for the Winchester Geese; prostitutes licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to ply their trade under his authority.
The poigniant death in poverty of many sixteenth and seventeenth century Bankside residents has struck a chord with local residents and visitors from afar. The Museum of London has partly excavated the site and estimates there are over 15,000 skeletons here, many of these are childrens. However as Bankside is a constantly changing area, there have been long battles to protect this graveyard from development.
The Friends of Crossbones, lead by local historian John Constable, have been at the forefront of the campaign to protect this site, and create a memorial garden here. Bankside Open Spaces Trust are now delighted to be working with the Friends group, in discussion with the site owners, Transport for London, towards securing this vision as part of future development. This process may take a few years before we actually have a garden we can plant flowers into, but we are reasonably confident that if all goes according to plan we will have one more beautiful new green place to enjoy in Bankside in years to come.
