The 'Winchester Geese'

Cross Bones Graveyard is the final resting place for thousands of women who worked as medieval sex workers licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work the brothels of Southwark.

They were known as the 'Winchester Geese'.

When excavations for the Jubilee Line in the 1990's started to uncover bones, it was estimated that over 15,000 paupers, prostitutes and their children were buried here. On unconsecrated ground. 

Local people created a memorial, researching the identities of the dead, writing their names on ribbons and tying them to the gates.

There is an ongoing battle to preserve the land from property developers.

I come here around once a year just to check it's still here. I saw this time that it is open to the public for a few hours a day. I missed it this time but will be back again.