Cross Bones Garden
the graveyard of the outcast dead
A moving Southwark memorial garden on a medieval paupers' burial ground, where the city's outcast dead are remembered with ribbons and shrines.
Free to visit · Southwark · Borough · SE1 1TA
Opening: Garden open limited hours · gates always shrined
Behind a gate festooned with ribbons, feathers and trinkets lies one of London's most touching hidden corners, the Cross Bones Garden. For centuries this unconsecrated ground was a burial place for the poor and for the Winchester Geese, the medieval sex workers licensed by the Bishop of Winchester yet denied a Christian grave.
An estimated fifteen thousand people, many of them children, were laid here in unmarked graves. Local volunteers transformed the neglected plot into a garden of remembrance, and the gates have become a spontaneous shrine. It is free to visit, quietly powerful, and a rare memorial to London's forgotten and outcast.
Getting there: On Redcross Way in Southwark, a couple of minutes from Borough station.
Best time to go: Check the open hours, though the ribbon-covered gates can be seen any time.
Insider tip: Even when the garden gates are locked, the ribbon-covered memorial gates on Redcross Way are worth seeing any time. Check the opening hours if you want to go inside the peaceful garden itself.
Free things to do in London · London Free Guide