Comments on: Plague!

Question: Plague!

Artw — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:58:23 -0800

What are the locations of known plague pits in London, and are any maps available showing them?

By: lhall

lhall — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:20:39 -0800

There are definitely plague pits around Christ Church in Spitalfields, and according to this BBC article there are some in East Smithfield, too. Other sites suggest a 'Great Pit' in Aldgate.

This site says: "As recently as 1999, Museum of London archaeologists excavating a 12?acre site adjoining the Spitalfields Market, across from the Church, found plague pits, the remains of a mediaeval priory and yet another Roman cemetery."

And finally, this Ch. 4 history site says: "The majority of records for the location of burial pits are piecemeal and parochial. Most parishes had to resort to larger pits simply because of the sheer number of bodies they had to dispose of. These pits can be traced in the parish churchwarden's accounts, where payment for digging was recorded. It's then a question of consulting the various 17th-century maps and identifying the location. Some books on London burial sites were published in the late 19th-century, but because of property development, many of these sites have since been built over. "

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:22:37 -0800

Well, Google Maps gives eight different plague pit locations around London.

By: lhall

lhall — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:26:05 -0800

Here's a map that includes a lot of burial places from various time periods, but should also have some plague-era stuff.

By: luciaisdada

lucia__is__dada — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:31:18 -0800

The librarians at the Wellcome collection probably can help with finding the "books on London burial sites were published in the late 19th-century" (after all they hosted the skeletons of London exhibition). They also have engravings. Yikes.

By: steef

steef — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:48:30 -0800

"Burial of the Plague Dead in Early Modern London" cites Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year: "In the 1665 plague, at St Dunstan in the West, the first pits were dug in mid-August; at St Bride's, as we have seen, in late August. At St Botolph Aldgate a number of pits were dug in August, but the 'great pit' in the churchyard, and which came to contain over a thousand bodies, received its first corpse on 6 September, according to Defoe's account...[.]

He mentions 'the great pit in Finsbury Fields', and lists sites or grounds (not necessarily pits) near Goswell Street, in Shoreditch, at Moorfields, and off Bishopsgate Street, and eight in the huge parish of Stepney."

By: np312

np312 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:37:35 -0800

In case it's not referenced in above links, Bunhill Fields in London fits the bill. Also a nice little cemetery to check out.

By: uk_giffo

uk_giffo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:41:37 -0800

My first thought was Blackheath in SE London, as I have a friend who lives there and he told me there were thousands of plague bodies buried beneath it. But a quick look at the Wikipedia page for the area suggests this is something of an urban myth.

By: roofus

roofus — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:42:18 -0800

I can recommend a good plague pit from my youth. Vincent Square in Pimlico has never been developed because it was a plague pit. It was also our school cricket pitch.
Picture and map: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/183865

By: Jofus

Jofus — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:23:37 -0800

I was about to suggest Blackheath - but apparently not.

Comments on: Plague!

Question: Plague!

By: lhall

By: koeselitz

By: lhall

By: lucia__is__dada

By: steef

By: np312

By: uk_giffo

By: roofus

By: Jofus

By: luciaisdada