Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
It was reserved for the commercial civilisation of this century to
“encroach” the churchyard out of existence. The Act of the Metropolitan
Railway gave the Company power to construct their Cannon Street Station
(1883) under the burial-ground, and to remove the human remains. The
churchyard is no more; the greater part of its site is enclosed by a
brick wall which screens the opening in the roof of the station below.
At the extreme west end an asphalted square has been railed in and
reserved as a home for gravestones, and a large ornament bearing this
melancholy and curious inscription:
Sacred to the memory of the dead interred in the ancient church and
churchyard of St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook during four
centuries. The formation of the District Railway having necessitated
the destruction of the greater part of the churchyard, all the human
remains contained therein were carefully collected and re-interred
in a vault beneath this monument A.D. 1884.—Rev. LEWIS BORRETT
WHITE, D.D., rector; JOHN R. W. LUCK, EDWARD WHITE, churchwardens.
But why sacred to the memory of the dead during “four centuries” only?
Had not those buried previously to 1484 any right to commemoration? The
churchyard existed in 1378 and the church in 1181. Truly inscription
writers are marvellous in their discriminating powers. The vault
containing the remains is situated alongside the railway line beneath.
Very interesting discoveries were made when excavating for the station.
Mr. E. P. Seaton, the resident engineer, has preserved some careful
notes, from which the following is an extract: “At the west end of the
churchyard was found a subway running north and south. The arch was
formed of stone blocks (Kentish rag) placed 3 feet apart, the space
between being filled up with brickwork. The sides were of worked red
ragstones, 8 by 11 inches, and 3 feet long (some 1 foot 4 inches long),
surrounded with rough rubble masonry, set in mortar of a brown colour.
The flat bottom varied from 2 to 4 feet in thickness and was formed of
random rubble masonry. The brick invert was of much later date, about 6
inches thick and almost a semicircle. The space between the underside of
that and the bottom was filled with made earth. A portion of the arch
had been broken in, and was filled with human bones. The other parts of
the subway or sewer were filled with hand-packed stones. This is
supposed to be the centre of the ancient Walbrook (this supposition is
quite correct) and made earth was found to a distance of 35 feet from
the surface. Clay of a light grey colour was then found, impregnated
with the decayed roots of water-plants. The foundations (it is a matter
of regret that no plan of the foundations was taken; the opportunity is
now lost for ever) of the old church of St. John the Baptist, destroyed
1666, and pulled down about 1677, were discovered about 10 to 12 feet
from the surface and composed of chalk and Kentish ragstones. They ran
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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