St Thomas' Hospital cemetery

During 1991, excavations were carried out on the site of New London Bridge House, Southwark (SE1) that covered part of a post-medieval cemetery, north of St Thomas’ Street.

The burials identified as mass graves associated with St Thomas’ Hospital were believed to be either paupers or epidemic graves. St Thomas’ Hospital was one of only three hospitals to survive the dissolution of the monasteries.

The earliest pit C [92] had individuals in eight layers, with two rows of burials in each layer. The middle pit B [34] was truncated by a Victorian wall and the latest A [27] extended beyond the limits of the excavation to the west and truncated earlier pits.

The 227 articulated individuals recovered were found beneath a large number of disarticulated remains believed to have been part of a charnel pit and were dated to the 17th century from pottery. Of the 227 individuals recovered, 193 were analysed.

Burials from the identified pits were aligned east-west, and the presence of shroud pins and coffin nails, indicated that many were buried in shrouds and/or coffins.

Variations in the method of recording: Joints were recorded as present no further grading was applied or four-digit array.

Preservation was relatively good, but completeness was generally not very good with truncation in both adults and sub adults (Fig1).

A total of 193 skeletons were included in the final analysis consisting of 160 adults (58 males, 29 females and 73 unsexed) and 33 subadults (Fig 2 and 3).

The demographic profile for the hospital cemetery site was interesting. The overall male to female ratio was 2:1, with the highest number of males dying in the age category 36–45 years, while for females it was the younger age category of 18–25 years. This could, perhaps, be an indication of the risks faced by young females during childbirth.

In the subadults, over half (9.3%) of those who survived the perils of early childhood died in the 12–17 age category.

The pathological profile for a site identified as a hospital and post-medieval provided many interesting results. Most notably, the extremely high prevalence of syphilis.

Twenty-five individuals (13%) were attributed to having syphilis, one of whom was a sub adult. The prevalence for non-specific periosteal reactions was 35.2%. Trauma was observed in both sexes, with two ante-mortem cases of blunt force trauma in males.

Table 5 provides a crude distribution of vertebral pathologies in the adult population. There was a similar pattern between the males and females, apart from Schmorl’s nodes, which were higher in males and IVD that was higher in females.

The general dental health of the individuals was seemingly typical of a post-medieval population, with a similar pattern between the males and females. Table 6 indicates that high rates of caries, calculus and hypoplasia were observed in the adults and subadults. Males were marginally more affected with periodontitis and females with periapical lesions.

The individuals from this site highlighted the perils of health and low status in the post-medieval period. The effects of urbanisation and susceptibility of low status individuals to infectious diseases was clearly apparent and particularly so from the high prevalence of syphilis. However, it should be considered that the pathological numbers may appear inflated from the very nature of the site being associated with a hospital.

Jones, H. 1990. Preliminary report of archaeological excavations at New London Bridge House, London Bridge Street, SE1. Unpublished MoLA report.

New London Bridge House, London Bridge Street, SE1

Site code NLB91

Last Updated: 2025