Rose Carmichael’s thoughtful and sympathetic account of the life and works of Crossbones Graveyard with a report from a Vigil, an interview with John Constable, musings on paganism, Christianity, “shamanism”, cultural appropriation and the interplay of Time and Eternity. Click below to play/listen:
Category: News
Crossbones on ResonanceFM
Londoners! This Friday 10th April 2026 between 7pm and 8pm on Resonance 104.4FM you can hear John Constable talking about Crossbones with researcher Rose Carmichael.
For those living elsewhere, the online link will be shared as soon as it’s available. Watch this space!
CrossBones GraveYard Day of Dance with The Dead
above clickable link: Stevyn Colgan‘s short video begins with Steve walking the dogs a leisurely stroll on his rural High Wycombe patch, then takes us to London for a brief sortie through a crowded Borough Market and then… AT 04.59: The Gut Girls, A Blessing For The Outcast Dead, and The Belles of London City kick off. Just WOW!!!
These and many more photos and videos from this unforgettable Day of Dance can be seen here
CrossBones Day of Dance
Sunday 22nd March 2026: 1-5pm in Cross Bones Graveyard (entrance in Union street)
A taste of what to expect at The CrossBones Day of Dance.
Filmed at last year’s Day of Dance by Ben Edge, who also recorded this Crossbones Lament.
Filmed at last year’s Day of Dance by Ben Edge, who also recorded this Crossbones Lament.
Come join us at the Outcasts’ Graveyard on Sunday 22nd March 1-5pm
Lullaby for The Outcast Dead by Charlie Marshall
A welcome new addition to the Crossbones corpus of poems, plays, songs and other artworks…
Charlie Marshall is a music student at Goldsmiths in New Cross. As part of his course he wrote a song about Crossbones. Here it is:
See Books and Media pages for many more creative responses to our Cross Bones Graveyard
Crossbones Graveyard
Photography, Psychogeography, Ritual – a new book of photographs by Max Reeves
‘Max Reeves’ photographs have documented our work at Crossbones Graveyard, London’s iconic psychogeographical landmark, over the past twenty years, charting its transformation from a derelict industrial site into a public Garden of Remembrance dedicated to sex workers and outcasts.’ (John Constable)
Photo: Max’s son Marlowe explores the Invisible Garden in 2008
Book: £20 from Entropy Press (click on link below):
https://www.entropypress.co.uk/books/p/crossbones-graveyard
Max has organised the Crossbones Day of Dance on Sunday 22nd March 2026
Copies of the book will also be available at this event
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Happy Christmas 2025 from Crow & Kaos
Above: the secret entrance to the ‘Invisible Garden’ created on Crossbones Graveyard by Andy Hulme (who’d previously been Viviene Westwood’s gardener). The site owners, Transport for London, had employed him as a kind of security guard, living on site in a beaten-up caravan. One of his main jobs was to prevent Crow and the Friends of Crossbones from entering the graveyard. However, it seemed he’d eavesdropped on our Vigils held outside the shrine in Redcross Way on the 23rd of the every month since 2004. At one of these Vigils, Jennifer had visualised a garden on what was thendescribed by TfL as a derelict industrial site. At another, Crow hung on the shrine a painting by his late friend Barry Parman (an early victim of AIDS). It showed an image of Christ as The Green Man with leaves and flowers sprouting from his wounds – with the words ‘Supposing Him To Be The Gardener’ a quote from The Gospel of John when Mary Magdalene meets the risen Christ in the garden.
In 2007, the Invisible Gardener approached Crow out of the blue and showed him the way in! Over the next six years they worked together (with occasional clashes of temperament) – with the Invisible Gardener overseeing the creation of the garden, whilst Crow created shrines to The Goose, sex workers, outcasts, addicts… During that time TfL didn’t even know the garden existed. By the time they realised it was a fait accompli.
In 2015, TfL began negotiating with Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST – a south London based community gardening charity) a process which led to the granting of a 30 year lease and the opening of a public garden of remembrance. That’s the present state of things. A look at the wider world reminds us that things can always go pear-shaped, yet today, at the approach to Christmas, we can rejoice at how our once despised little pauper’s graveyard (with a estimated re-development value of £25 million) has become an internationally recognised shrine and garden of remembrance for sex workers and outcasts.
Goose may your Spirit fly free!
“God bless us every one.”
Above: Red Cross Mary cradles her Goose in the snow.
Photo 1 by Max Reeves
Photos 2 & 3 by Katy Kaos aka Katy Nicholls
Crossbones – video report in SE Londoner
Kathryn Schoon / SE Londoner recorded this short feature on Crossbones at the 23rd November Vigil, interviewing John Crow and Denise Williams / Dangerous Dinky aka Dirty South . A great summary of our work there in 2 mins 35 secs! Worth a look!
Fitzrovia Chapel, 22nd November 2025
John Constable (aka John Crow) and Michelle Watson performed ‘The Book of The Goose’ from ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ to a packed Fitzrovia Chapel – as part of Ben Edge’s ‘Children of Albion’ exhibition
Albion Awakens at the Fitzrovia Chapel
‘… went riding for a Vision, a Vision of Humanity,
Man, God and Beast communing for one moment in Eternity…’
John Constable aka John Crow performs ‘The Book of The Goose’ from ‘The Southwark Mysteries’ in the Fitzrovia Chapel, London, 22nd November 2025
This event, ‘Albion Awakens’, was part of Ben Edge’s ‘Children of Albion’ exhibition (6th-26th November 2025) – featuring The Belles of London City, Pearly King and Queens, Steve Micalef and John Crow – with an impromtu Goosey guest-appearance by Michelle Watson – all culminating in the launch of Max Reeves’s book ‘Crossbones Graveyard’. Crossbones also features in Ben’s film on radical English folklore which was shown in the exhibition and in his painting of Crow walking The Goose at the gates. Thanks to all the friends from many lives, past and present, who attended. An incredible life-affirming day! (Photos by Ben)
