London Month of the Dead - Crossbones Graveyard

CROSSBONES GRAVEYARD Burying the Outcast with Jelena Bekvalac and John Constable Saturday 13th October 2018 from 1:00 pm In the backstreets of South London, a short walk from Shakespeare’s Globe is the site of an old burial ground with an extraordinary history. For centuries it was the outcasts’ graveyard for the area formerly known as the Mint, one of London’s poorest and most violent slums. According to local lore, it was the final resting place for the Winchester Geese, medieval sex workers licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work in the brothels of The Liberty of the Clink, which lay outside the jurisdiction of the City of London. By the time it closed in 1853, Crossbones held the mortal remains of an estimated 15,000 paupers. The eastern party was dug up in the 1990s during work on the Jubilee Line extension. Jelena Bekvalac will reveal the story of the excavation of the buried bones on this site. In 1996, the writer John Constable had a vision in which The Goose revealed the secret history of Crossbones. This was the inspiration for the Southwark Mysteries – the epic cycle of poems, plays and esoteric lore preformed in The Globe and Southwark Cathedral. John Constable will reveal the history of the site and how he was inspired by it. Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin cocktail. Please click here to buy. John Constable John Constable (aka John Crow) is a playwright, poet, performer, activist and the urban shaman of Crossbones. He has lived in Southwark since 1986 and conducted guided tours of the Brough and Bankside area since 1998. Much of his work, which attempts to blend the divisions between life and art, is inspired by London’s “outlaw borough”. “The Southwark Mysteries” in which a swearing Jesus returns to save sinners in Southwark, outraged many traditional church-goers when it was staged in Southwark Cathedral on Easter Sunday 2000. Jelena Bekvalac Jelena Bekvalac is the Curator of Human Osteology at the Museum of London and was an original member of the research osteologist team at the Wellcome funded Centre for Human Bioarchaeology.

In the backstreets of South London, a short walk from Shakespeare’s Globe is the site of an old burial ground with an extraordinary history. For centuries it was the outcasts’ graveyard for the area formerly known as the Mint, one of London’s poorest and most violent slums. According to local lore, it was the final resting place for the Winchester Geese, medieval sex workers licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work in the brothels of The Liberty of the Clink, which lay outside the jurisdiction of the City of London.

By the time it closed in 1853, Crossbones held the mortal remains of an estimated 15,000 paupers. The eastern party was dug up in the 1990s during work on the Jubilee Line extension. Jelena Bekvalac will reveal the story of the excavation of the buried bones on this site.

In 1996, the writer John Constable had a vision in which The Goose revealed the secret history of Crossbones. This was the inspiration for the Southwark Mysteries – the epic cycle of poems, plays and esoteric lore preformed in The Globe and Southwark Cathedral. John Constable will reveal the history of the site and how he was inspired by it.

Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin cocktail. Please click here to buy.

John Constable
John Constable (aka John Crow) is a playwright, poet, performer, activist and the urban shaman of Crossbones. He has lived in Southwark since 1986 and conducted guided tours of the Brough and Bankside area since 1998. Much of his work, which attempts to blend the divisions between life and art, is inspired by London’s “outlaw borough”. “The Southwark Mysteries” in which a swearing Jesus returns to save sinners in Southwark, outraged many traditional church-goers when it was staged in Southwark Cathedral on Easter Sunday 2000.

Jelena Bekvalac
Jelena Bekvalac is the Curator of Human Osteology at the Museum of London and was an original member of the research osteologist team at the Wellcome funded Centre for Human Bioarchaeology.