Crossbones Garden is located on the site of a post-medieval cemetery. Here lie the remains of an estimated 15,000 poor people, more than half of whom were children. They lived, worked, and died in a once-impoverished and notoriously lawless district of London. According to tradition, this site was once the “cemetery of single women” for the “Winchester Geese”—women who had received permission from the church to work in the brothels (known as “stews”) of the “Liberty of the Clink” district.
The history of this place is not limited to a specific past but is an ongoing process.
Starting in 1996, John Constable (alias John Crow) and Katy Nicholls co-founded the “Friends of Crossbones” network to protect this site and raise awareness of its historical, cultural, and spiritual significance.
From 2006 to 2012, the “Friends of Crossbones” collaborated with a mysterious “invisible gardener” to create a secret guerrilla garden.
Through 2018, they collaborated with the “Bankside Open Spaces Trust” to create and maintain a communal “Garden of Remembrance” on the grounds of the old burial ground.
Today, the Crossbones Garden is an oasis of peace and quiet reflection in the heart of London, a place where “The Outcast Dead” are honored and remembered.
