This IS true. Let me give you the griff piece by piece.
First Liverpool Street Station.Liverpool Street is a central London railway terminus connected to London’s Underground station situated in the in the north-eastern corner of the City of London. It is the terminus of the West Anglia Main Line to Cambridge, the busier Great Eastern Main Line to Norwich, local and regional commuter trains serving east London and destinations in the East of England, and the Stansted Express to London Stansted Airport. It was opened in 1874 as a replacement for the Great Eastern Railway’s main London terminus, Bishopsgate, which was subsequently converted into a goods (freight) yard. Liverpool Street was built as a dual-level station with an underground station opened in 1875 for the Metropolitan Railway, named Bishopsgate until 1909 when it was renamed Liverpool Street.
Liverpool Street Station today
Plan of Liverpool Street when it opened in 1894
Okay – now we know a bit about Liverpool Street station. Liverpool Street is to be a stop on the under construction Crossrail line. Yes, believe it or not, London is getting a new 73-mile railway line. It should begin full operation in 2018 with a new east-west route across Greater London. Work began in 2009 on the central part of the line—a tunnel through central London. Crossrail is one of Europe’s largest railway and infrastructure construction projects. Where does it go? Check the map below ….
Crossrail Route Map
The bit in red is the Underground bit. One of the underground stations is Liverpool Street.
So what’s this rubbish about 3,000 bodies?
Beneath Liverpool Street
Well, as you can see, to dig out the new underground station you have to through Bedlam Burial Ground – and that’s where the bodies are buried.
Hold on a mo – there’s more to the story ……. Bedlam? The current definition is, “a scene of uproar and confusion (there was bedlam in the courtroom). The old definition is very different, “an institution for the care of mentally ill people.” Bedlam was the first London hospital to specialise in the mentally ill and is the origin of the word “bedlam” describing chaos or madness. So some of the bodies may be related to Bedlam but not all by a long chalk.
The burial ground was in use from 1569 through at least 1738 and is considered the most archaeologically valuable site in London, according to Museum of London Archaeology, which is overseeing the project. “This excavation presents a unique opportunity to understand the lives and deaths of 16th and 17th century Londoners,” Jay Carver, one of the archaeologists involved in the dig, said in a written statement. “The Bedlam burial ground spans a fascinating phase of London’s history, including the transition from the Tudor-period City into cosmopolitan early-modern London.”
The old bones may shed new light on the diet and lifestyle of the people who once lived in the area. The bones of plague victims buried at the site may yield fresh insights into the evolution of the bacteria that cause plague. England’s last great outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in 1665. It killed an estimated 100,000 people, or almost one in four Londoners. The skeletons will be reburied at a cemetery near London.
Now for the proof (just in case you think I am making this all up).
A skeleton being exhumed
Names of people who were buried at Bedlam
Gravestone found at the site
Just imagine where you would be without me to dig up all this rhubarb!!!! NO, DON’T tell me.