The Spitalfields Charnel House
Excavations during 1999 for the redevelopment of Spital Square uncovered a former medieval Charnel House - a building for the storing of bones disturbed during the digging of cemeteries. The remains have been preserved behind glass and can be viewed in situ.
The Charnel House lay within the crypt of the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene and St Edmund The Bishop and was built around 1320; it was located within the cemetery of the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital which gave the area its names. The Romans had also used the area as a burial ground and the excavations also revealed a lead-lined coffin containing the body of a woman. The 'body' lying amongst the ruins is actually a sculpture, representing a young man who died at the age of twenty-five, a not uncommon age at that time.
St Mary Spital was closed down by King Henry VIII in 1539 during The Reformation. The Chapel and Charnel House became a private residence, before being demolished in the 1700s.
The Spitalfields Charnel House
Excavations during 1999 for the redevelopment of Spital Square uncovered a former medieval Charnel House - a building for the storing of bones disturbed during the digging of cemeteries. The remains have been preserved behind glass and can be viewed in situ.
The Charnel House lay within the crypt of the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene and St Edmund The Bishop and was built around 1320; it was located within the cemetery of the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital which gave the area its names. The Romans had also used the area as a burial ground and the excavations also revealed a lead-lined coffin containing the body of a woman. The 'body' lying amongst the ruins is actually a sculpture, representing a young man who died at the age of twenty-five, a not uncommon age at that time.
St Mary Spital was closed down by King Henry VIII in 1539 during The Reformation. The Chapel and Charnel House became a private residence, before being demolished in the 1700s.