Work on the Jubilee Line extension in the 1990s uncovered a paupers’ graveyard on the south bank of the Thames, which held the remains of 15,000 largely female individuals. These were believed to be the “Winchester Geese”, the name given to medieval sex workers licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to ply their trade across the river from the City of London and thus outside its legal purview. In the years since then the site has become known as ‘The Crossbones graveyard’ and made into a memorial garden and sacred place of commemoration and ritual by a devoted community of volunteers.

On the 20th anniversary of the creation of the garden, the Museum of London’s Curator of Osteology, Jelena Bekvalac, will take us time-travelling back through the site, along with an introduction to the vast collection of skeletal remains held in the Museum’s archive. Who were the people who were buried in Crossbones? How were the dead treated in those times? What do the bones tell us about their state of health and the version of the city in which they lived? What happens to the bones that are uncovered by archaeological digs or by the JCBs of property developers? What does the Museum do with these remains and why?

Tickets £12 including a Victorian punch and a 20% donation to a host of restoration projects at Kensal Green Cemetery. Please click here to purchase.

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.