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Great Plague skeletons unearthed at Liverpool Street Crossrail site

Aideen Kennedy

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Building works at the Crossrail site at Liverpool Street in the City of London (LSE: CIN.L - news) saw the unearthing of a mass burial site suspected of containing 30 victims of the Great Plague of 1665. The discovery was made at the burial ground of the original 'Bedlam' mental health hospital, which was being excavated to allow the construction of the eastern entrance of the new station.

The burial ground was in use from 1569 to at least 1738, spanning the start of the period of Elizabethan explorers, the English civil wars, the Restoration of the Monarchy, Shakespeare's plays, the Great Fire of London and numerous plague outbreaks. Recent excavations suggest that about 30,000 Londoners were buried there.

Jay Carver, Crossrail's lead archaeologist, said the construction of Crossrail gave experts the opportunity to learn about the lives and deaths of the 16th and 17th Century Londoners.

A headstone found on the site was marked '1665' and the bodies appeared to have been buried on the same day, suggesting they were victims of The Great Plague. "Only closer analysis will tell if this is a plague pit from the Great Plague in 1665 but we hope this gruesome but exciting find will tell us more about the one of London's most notorious killers." This 360-degree video gives a deep view into the work that archaeologists from Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) who are excavating the site are carrying out.

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The skeletons will now be analysed by osteologists from MOLA, and scientific tests may reveal if bubonic plague or some other pestilence was the cause of death.

Mike Henderson, senior osteologist at MOLA, said: "The concentration of burials in this pit provides a new focus for scientific testing and study. We hope detailed osteological analysis will help determine whether these people were exposed to The Great Plague and potentially learn more about the evolution of this deadly disease." Hong Kong transport group MTR Corporation (HKSE: 0066-OL.HK - news) last year won the £1.4bn deal to run London's new Crossrail rail link, beating off competition from UK rivals Go-Ahead, National Express (LSE: NEX.L - news) and Arriva.