Monstrosity in “The Darkest London”: Cross Bones Graveyard

The East End walking tour presented some of the monstrous areas in London where poverty struck throughout the 1800s. The residents of the West End viewed the East End as a foreign concept. They lived in two different worlds- those in the West were respectably wealthy, upper/middle-class individuals. Those in the East were said to have lived in “the darkest London” where 25% of its population lived below substance level and 10% couldn’t afford enough food- causing there to be over 30,000 homeless children. Houses were rotting from the inside out, while human waste and vermin filled the streets, creating an outlandish scent. This concept is similar to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reading. The two personas portrayed by a single individual was only known by insiders (his friends) relative to the city of London. As one may have known the city during this time period as having the most wealth, a thriving business sector and top-rated education, they were missing the other half of the city that was essentially buried by insiders, so that their external image wouldn’t be damaged.

Due to these poor conditions, many women were forced to turn to prostitution. This took place in various parks around London and on corners in the East End. The parks acted as an escape for city-goers during daylight, but once nightfall arose the women came out to make just enough money for the upcoming week. Until the mid 1800s women who sold sex as their career were buried in the Cross Bones Graveyard, which was placed in the middle of the East End, the unruliest area in London. These single women were looked at as “monsters” by West End individuals and this is how they were re-payed, by being buried in this graveyard. It is also interesting that the graveyard looks similar to parks where many prostitutes worked, allowing them to live out the rest of their days in a smaller version of the parks they once stood in. This is the reason that women were looked down upon in the Victorian period, as they had to fight to gain power in a city that they were once so belittled in for sex.

As London started to mend its two faces and unite as one, the East End area continued developing  toward being known for the Borough market, trendy restaurants, and modern office buildings. In the late 1900s, part of the Cross Bones Graveyard was destroyed in order to add on to the Jubilee Line, referencing that at one time London was abandoning valuable history for their own modern gains, but caused them to discover the volume of bodies buried in the graveyard. Now, the outcasts buried in there will be able enjoy valuable green space in a garden since the Southwark Community Council Bank donated 100,000 pounds to its development and maintenance. Cross Bones Graveyard will remain preserved for many more years with a plaque honoring those buried there and ribbons, feathers, and beads crowding its entrance in commemoration of the East End’s seedier past and the women who endured it.