In memory of the outcast and downtrodden
A patch of wasteland behind a high wall in a run-down corner of Southwark has become a shrine and a place of popular protest. Passers-by can see little through the locked metal gates, as they are covered from top to bottom with colourful strips of cloth, plastic flowers, scraps of paper inscribed with prayers, poems, and handwritten messages to deceased relatives, Christmas tree decorations, teddy bears and crocheted dolls, dream catchers, images of Indian goddesses, small mirrors, chestnuts threaded on string. Many people have expressed their wishes and emotions here through words and objects. A Madonna hangs from the gate, but this is no Christian sanctuary – in fact, it was an unconsecrated graveyard.
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Address Redcross Way, SE1 1TA | Public Transport Borough (Northern Line) | Tip On the Thames path close to Southwark Cathedral stands a high wall with a rose window – remains of the magnificent palace of the bishops of Winchester, which stood here from the 12th to the 17th century.
Until the 17th century, prostitutes, known as »Winchester geese«, were buried here within the jurisdiction of the bishops of Winchester. Beyond the control of the City of London authorities, the see of Winchester licensed brothels, arenas for bull baiting, and theatres. The bishops profited from this business, but gave no Christian burial to »dishonoured« women. Crossbones later became a Christian cemetery for the poor and was closed in 1852, when an estimated 15,000 graves had filled it to overflowing. In the 1990s, archaeologists who examined 148 skeletons from the site found one third of them to be new-born or still-born children.
Although this unbuilt site is a mouth-watering prospect for developers, all schemes have so far been prevented by residents and an alliance including mystics, feminists and the local writer John Constable, whose »Southwark Mysteries« were inspired, he claims, by the spirit of a Winchester goose. Since 1998, ceremonies have been held here at Halloween. The campaign for the graveyard to be made into a memorial park for »the outcast dead« has persuaded the landowner, Transport for London, to lease the site to the Bankside Open Spaces Trust, which is raising money to create a garden.
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