Borough, including Borough Market, is one of the oldest areas of London. It was once outside the jurisdiction of the City of London and became known for its bawdy behaviour and as a haven for law breakers, along with its endless streams of brothels and prostitutes. Borough’s markets were frequented by prostitutes and pickpockets from Saturday through to Sunday, and this on all accounts was a riotous, unruly and often frightening affair, where workers drank and danced the weeks wages away. Under the foul smelling naphtha lights, stall holders would sell a multitude of goods including meats, vegetables and hot eels to eat on the spot. Fortune tellers, entertainers and women would sell themselves to endless visitors daring to experience the weekends mayhem.
The once marshy area on the south side of the river became known for its ‘Winchester Geese’ – the prostitutes legalised by the Bishop of Winchester to ply their trade in Southwark’s Liberty of the Clink. They sold themselves to the local population spreading diseases such as syphilis amongst men, not only the tradesmen themselves, but also business and well respected family men, who then passed it on to their wives and children.
It was only obvious that the fate of the ‘Geese’ would end with a miserable death caused by disease, poverty and constant work through all hours for little money. Once they had died, they were buried in a grave with other deceased prostitutes in a unconsecrated cemetery known as the Cross Bone Graveyard (used as a paupers burial ground), which was then later closed in 1853 on the grounds that it was ‘completely overcharged with dead.’
Recent archaeological digs for the Jubilee Line extensions in the 1990′s uncovered the hoard of woman’s bodies piled up on top of each other, revealing the Southwark mysteries.
A shrine decorated with ribbons and flowers has now been erected in memory of these women and a Halloween of Crossbones ceremony, a ritual honouring the outcast dead, takes place here each year.
