The Forgotten Souls of London's Women of the Night

Down an unremarkable side street in Southwark, London, is a fenced lot filled with broken concrete slabs, patches of overgrown grass and the odd piece of abandoned construction equipment. Its dark history and iron gates separate this sad little patch from the outside world. Lengths of ribbon, handwritten messages and tokens weave a tight pattern through the bars of the rusty gates … all tributes to the 15,000 Outcast Dead of London.

During a 1990s excavation for a subway line extension, human remains were found at the site which had been an unconsecrated cemetery. Just 158 bodies were removed before construction commenced, leaving behind an estimated 15,000 bodies, dating back to the 16th century, mostly women, the unborn or children under the age of 6. Many of the women were prostitutes, known as Winchester Geese. They were destitute, desperate women and girls who suffered from rickets, smallpox, tuberculosis, vitamin deficiencies and, quite often, syphilis.

Today people leave tributes on the gates of Cross Bones Graveyard; there are also monthly remembrance services.

Read the fascinating story at Messy Nessy Chic