Adrian Miles – författare

It is fascinating to think that many hundreds of generations of Londoners lie beneath the city without us knowing. Over many centuries burial grounds have been developed, built over and then forgotten, often beneath playgrounds, gardens or car parks. When modern development takes place, remains are disturbed and we are reminded of a London that has long since disappeared, particularly with recent archaeological discoveries across the city.In London’s Hidden Burial Grounds, authors Robert Bard and Adrian Miles seek to uncover many of the capital's lost graveyards, often in the unlikeliest of places.

Additional burial areas for the parish of St James Westminster in the 17th to 18th century were excavated in 2008–9. As the northern part of the parish around Soho grew and its population increased from the mid 17th century, pressure mounted on burial space in the churchyard on Piccadilly and on existing support structures for the least fortunate members of society. In response, the lower ground (the early extramural burial ground, 1695–1733) and the upper ground (the later extramural burial ground, 1733–90) were opened in succession, along with the new workhouse complex (1725–1913) and the workhouse burial ground (1733–93). In the later 19th to 20th century public baths were constructed over part of the site and the workhouse was repurposed and then redeveloped.The three burial areas were used intensively and a total of 2553 burials were recorded. Intra-site comparisons exploring demographic and health profiles show a higher proportion of adult females in the workhouse population and a disproportionately low number of childhood deaths across all three grounds. Full osteological analysis of 1786 skeletons revealed the wide range of conditions afflicting the buried population. Higher overall rates of pathological bone conditions, including infectious disease and trauma, were identified, however, in the workhouse burials when compared to the extramural grounds. Together with historical and archaeological evidence, these results and those from comparative contemporary sites help place the lives of the urban poor and destitute within the wider context of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Archaeological excavations at Shard Place, Southwark, by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) revealed evidence of funerary activity associated with old St Thomas’s Hospital. The discovery of 811 inhumations, dating from the 17th to early 18th century exposed the intensive nature of burial activity in an area immediately to the south-east of the hospital buildings. This burial assemblage, together with dumps of hospital waste and evidence of structural remains associated with the 18th-century hospital rebuilding, enhances our knowledge of the early history of this London institution.The study of the skeletal remains of 794 individuals, the majority of whom must have been inmates at St Thomas’s Hospital, provides an insight into the health of the population and the diseases from which they suffered. The demographic structure of the burial sample reveals elevated vulnerability in adolescence and early adulthood, an indication of the health risks inherent within an increasingly crowded urban landscape. The City’s poor endured cramped living conditions and rising levels of pollution. Many migrated to London in search of jobs as labourers, or servants and apprentices. The burial ground revealed early evidence of hospital medical practice in the form of surgical limb amputation. Skeletal evidence of venereal syphilis was also identified, consistent with records of specialist ‘foul wards’ at St Thomas’s Hospital, provided for those suffering from this chronic condition.