The Skeletons of Spitalfields

We're still no closer to knowing whether we want to be buried or cremated. Either choice is loaded with complications. It seems that cremation is not necessarily the green option. In the heat of the furnace, toxic emissions are given off including 16% of the UKs mercury emissions. That is of course from our fillings. To be buried conventionally uses up valuable land space for rotting corpses. I'm not sure there are any green burial sites near where I live in South London. That's all to be researched.

Meanwhile, reading Necropolis (Catherine Arnold) reminded me of a film I made, oh, probably 20 years ago. It was for the series Chronicle and it was about a remarkable excavation carried out in the crypt of Hawksmoor's Christ Church Spitalfields in East London. Archaeologists found 1000 skeletons which all dated from the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. What was extraordinary about the research was that all the coffins were clearly labeled and the corpses names and dates from their coffins and their tomb stones could be matched with parish records. Thus whole biographies could be constructed of people who had died 2 centuries before. One of these was Louisa Courtauld who died in 1807. As she was a part of the famous fabric family there is a portrait of her in life. In front of me I have a picture of her skull and a photo of her portrait. It is a remarkable juxtaposition.

There was fear, when the coffins were opened, that cholera or the plague might still be contained within. In fact the worst the researchers had to face was the disgusting smell emanating from the corpses. Some of the corpses were in an amazing state of preservation, with leathery skin still on their faces and fabulous bonnets and dazzling golden fabric draped around their bodies.

Any research that disturbs corpses has to be undertaken with real sensitivity. Christ Church was dilapidated and unsafe and the crypt needed to be emptied for repair and reconstruction work so the coffins needed shifting whatever. I went to meet Louisa's descendant who seemed happy that the work was contributing to knowledge about funeral practices. And proud of his portrait of his great, great, great (I think!) grandmother!

Of course graves do get moved on a pretty regular basis. I remember when my grandmother came on a visit to England from Australia where she lived. Her daughter Kathleen had dies of diptheria as a child and she went to visit the grave. It wasn't there. It had long since been turned over to make room for the next inhabitant and the one after that. Unless you have a mausoleum of your own on private land, your resting place in death is for a limited time only.