St. Pancras Burial Ground, London (YKW01)

Clients: Gifford (on behalf of London & Continental Railways Ltd)

Author: Natasha Powers

The analysis of post-medieval burials from St Pancras, exhumed in advance of construction of the new London terminus of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, is currently being edited for publication. This extensive archaeological project, which included a watching brief on exhumation works, was led by Gifford, on behalf of project managers Rail Link Engineering. As part of Gifford's team, Pre-Construct Archaeology undertook the fieldwork and MoLAS studied the skeletal remains and associated artefacts.

This large skeletal assemblage has provided an insight into the health of Londoners in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Eighty-two percent of the dated skeletal sample was buried between 1793-1812. This was a time of population increase, industrialisation and the rise of the urban poor. The cemetery contains both wealthy burials and later low-status workhouse inhabitants. Given what we know of London, the cemetery assemblage should reflect a living population riddled with respiratory and other infections, nutritional deficiency and social diseases.

A number of named individuals were examined, including high status (and formerly wealthy) French émigrés. Arthur Richard Dillon, Archbishop of Narbonne had been interred wearing a fine set of porcelain dentures.

Rates of caries and ante-mortem tooth loss were consistent with a refined and sugar rich diet and poor dental hygiene regardless of social status. Caries rates increased with age, until later adulthood, where ante-mortem tooth loss reduced the number of carious teeth present. Evidence of dentistry reflects the wealth of those buried: fillings of gold and a grey metal were also found.

One hundred and eleven individuals (15.5% of the assemblage) had skeletal manifestations of infectious disease. The majority could not be assigned to a specific cause. Lower than expected rates of tuberculosis (0.6% of the population) are explained by infrequent skeletal involvement, whilst treponemal infections (venereal syphilis) follow the modern clinical pattern of a peak between the ages of 20-24 years and a significant male bias. Cases included two individuals with particularly florid cranial changes, one of whom was named as Mr. Francis Coster. Interestingly probable cases included a coal merchant, Pierre Jossaume whose wife, Jeanne Jossaume, showed no indications of the condition and whose death certificate stated she had died from old age.

High rates of enamel hypoplasia and evidence of growth retardation support the presence of a poor urban population, whilst a lower than reported prevalence of cribra orbitalia, rickets and the presence of D.I.S.H. appears to contradict this. A number of adults had bowed long bones suggesting they had suffered from rickets earlier in life.

There was evidence of interpersonal violence amongst the men. Sixty-nine adults (44 males 19.0%), 20 females (9.1%) and five adults for whom sex could not be determined) had fractures: a wide range of injuries that might result from accident or deliberate violence. When compared to Christchurch, Spitalfields, these figures indicate a far higher fracture prevalence at St. Pancras.

Dissected human and animal bone was also found, reflecting the changing attitudes to death and dissection during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2005: annual review