‘Oh that’s extraordinary! So, Crossbones Graveyard is a very moving place. It is thought to have actually been the original resting place for the medieval sex workers who were licensed to practice in brothels by the Church in Southwark. And what’s happened is… after that, 15,000 paupers’ burials were held there. It’s no longer… people can’t be buried there any more, but it’s really been taken over by the community. It’s been taken to people’s hearts. It’s become a shrine to the outcast dead, and it’s absolutely covered in ribbons and memorials and mementos of people who died from the 17th century in workhouses right up to the present day. And what’s really interesting is that every year now, on the Feast of Mary Magdalene, The Dean of Southwark visits and makes an Act of Regret and Remembrance for the way that the Church treated women…’
Great news for Friends of Crossbones, Bankside Open Spaces Trust and all of us working to protect the shrine to the outcast and the Garden of Remembrance…
