A rare, medieval charnel house will go on public
display for the first time in 300 years this month in a visually striking
reminder of the past beneath our feet.
The 14th century bone store has been preserved and incorporated in the heart
of a multi-million-pound office and retail development.
Visitors and office workers will be presented with the stark contrast of a
vaulted crypt dating back almost 700 years set immediately beneath the glass
front of the new headquarters of the law firm Allen & Overy.
The Spitalfields charnel house in central London will be visible from above
through ground-level glass panels and from the side via a Norman
Foster-designed sunken courtyard containing a small yew tree.
It provides a remarkable window into the history of a site that was the
burial place of wealthy inhabitants of Roman Londinium, one of the country's
largest hospitals dating back to the late 12th century, a cemetery that has
yielded the remains of more than 10,000 medieval Londoners and the market
founded in the 17th century.
The 700-year-old building has been removed from English Heritage's buildings
at risk register, a list of the nation's most vulnerable grade I and II*
buildings and monuments published annually.
Steven Brindle, an English Heritage ancient monument inspector, said: "This
is a remarkable design achievement. I really like the metaphorical way it
allows an appreciation of the juxtaposition between the past down below and
the modern up above."
John Drew, a partner at Foster and Partners, and senior architect on the
project, said: "I often wonder what it would be like if the ground in London
was transparent and we could see the remains of the city's 2,500 years of
history beneath our feet.
"I find it rather exciting that someone can be just walking across the
square and suddenly find themselves on the glass panels, looking down at 700
years of history."
It was believed during the Middle Ages that only those buried in consecrated
ground could expect a place in heaven.
The charnel house, one of only four such dedicated medieval buildings in
England, was built in the early 1300s as the crypt of a chapel that stood in
the cemetery of St Mary Spital priory. For more than 200 years it was a
repository for bones disturbed when gravediggers buried new bodies in the
hospital churchyard. Archaeologists have also found foundations of a gallery
built on the side of the charnel house in 1488, designed to house important
members of society during public gatherings and speeches held at the St Mary
Spital outdoor pulpit.
In an age without newspapers or other media, such pulpits were central to
the distribution of news. In his diary entry for April 13 1669, Samuel Pepys
recorded: "…and I by hackney coach to the Spittle, and heard a piece of a
dull sermon to my Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and thence saw them all take
horse and ride away, which I have not seen together many a-day; their wives
also went in their coaches; and, indeed, the sight was mighty pleasing."
The charnel house, 43ft by 23ft, was converted into a private house
following Henry VIII's ordering of the closure of the hospital and priory in
1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
In about 1700 the chapel was demolished and the crypt filled in with earth.
The ground level was raised, and terrace houses built over the site. These
were demolished in the early 20th century to make way for warehousing for
the Spitalfields Market.
The medieval bone store was rediscovered in 1999 during excavations by the
Museum of London archaeology service for the new development planned at the
site.
Working on advice from English Heritage, the Spitalfields Development Group
instructed the architects Foster and Partners to incorporate the structure
into their scheme.
Dan Cruickshank, a historian and local resident, said: "To ponder the
charnel house, below which bodies remain interred, is to confront the
beliefs of medieval Londoners. This is a beautiful house of the medieval
dead, where bones were preserved against the Day of Judgment when the
righteous would enjoy paradise while the damned were consigned to hell."