Crossbones

On Redcross Way in Southwark, a quiet back-street running parallel to Borough High Street, there's a plot of land surrounded by London Underground hoardings. There's a big rusty iron gate adorned with ivy, ribbons, flowers, feathers, jewellery and other totems - and with a bronze plaque bearing the epitaph: 'R.I.P. The Outcast Dead'.
This is Cross Bones, a pauper's burial ground that was used to bury the prostitutes who worked in Southwark's brothels or 'stews' and who were excluded from Christian burial. The plot of ground is at the point that is furthest away from all of the local parish churches . It is thought that over 14,000 "single women" were buried here in the centuries up to the seventeenth century. Of those recovered over 60% are thought to be children, many bearing signs of syphilis.
Over the past decade, the iron gates in Redcross Way have been transformed into a shrine, a living communal art-work.