Hidden Places in London - Graveyards, Tyburn Gallows and the Outcast Dead.

Traitor's Gate - Tower of London
This was the landing place for prisoners; and here successively the Duke of Buckingham (1521), Sir Thomas More, Queen Anne Boleyn, Cromwell Earl of Essex, Queen Katharine Howard (1542) Duke of Somerset (1551), Lady Jane Grey, the Princess (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth, Earl of Essex (1601), and James Duke of Monmouth, passed under the arch on their way to a prison or the scaffold.

Tower of London, City of London, Greater London EC3N 4

St. Olave's Church
Crowned with a cluster of skulls, the 1658 arch over the churchyard's entrance fascinated and disturbed Dickens. In his 'Commercial Traveller', he referred to it as the church of 'St Ghastly Grim', and descibed '...a small small churchyard, with a ferocious strong spiked iron gate, like a jail.
This was Pepy's church and it's where he is buried.
During the Great Plague 326 people were buried here in five months.

8 Hart Street, EC3R 7NB

The Watch House
The Watch House of the 12th century church of St Sepulchre-Without-Newgate, had windows that overlooked the graveyard so that the Resurrectionists might be prevented from body-snatching. This was a very lucrative trade and only the vigilance of the warders helped to stem the practice.
This church had long associations with Newgate prison but its less macabre connection is its inclusion in the rhyme 'Oranges And Lemons'.
10 Giltspur St, EC1A 9DE

The Execution Bell
The church of St Sepulchre-Without-Newgate contained a
tunnel that led into Newgate prison, and on the night before the condemned prisoners faced public execution, the sextant would walk through the passageway and ring a bell twelve times and recite a prayer to the condemned.
The Newgate Bell became known as the 'execution bell' and can still be seen in the church.
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate
10 Giltspur St, City of London EC1A 9DE

Cross Bones Graveyard
Cross Bones Graveyard - in medieval times this was an unconsecrated graveyard for prostitutes or "Winchester Geese" - this name originated because they were actually licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work within the Liberty of the Clink.

By the eighteenth century it had become a paupers burial ground, which closed in 1853.

18-22 Redcross Way, Camberwell,
Greater London SE1 1

Tyburn Tree

The circular plaque marks the site where public hangings took place. The first recorded was in 1196 and they continued until 1783.
The condemned from Newgate Prison were brought here; grandstands were erected around the gallows for the crowds who came to watch.
Jack Shepherd and Jonathan Wild were both executed at Tyburn.

Junction of Edgeware and Bayswater Roads, W.2.

Here are a few reminders of how some unfortunate Londoner's died, were dispatched and sometimes, even dug up again! Although, they may not be in the top 10 of tourist attractions in London; if you pass by these plaques and hidden places when you are sightseeing in London, you may want to pause and reflect on the victims of the plague, the condemned from Newgate, the outcast London prostitutes, the Londoners who weren't allowed to rest in peace and the Tudor Queens and others, who entered the Tower of London, via Traitors Gate.