Crossrail puts a skeleton on public display

Just for one day though, but Crossrail is holding an exhibition to show off some of the historic items their archaeological team has dug up since surface level digging started.

Including a nearly complete skeleton, which is one of many being disinterred near Liverpool Street. This particular chap was probably a manual labourer, although they haven’t dated the burial yet.

The site is near the bedlam hospital, so he could have been a patient, although later burials of ordinary folk took place on the site as well.

The exhibition while dominated by the skeleton has a number of tables with artefacts from an ancient lump of amber, through Saxon stoneware, medieval leather shoes and up to Victorian pottery.

Lining the room though are a series of large poster boards that explain the history of London that Crossrail crosses through, and some of the key sites they are excavating.

The deep tunnels themselves should be below the archaeology layer, so the research work is confined to the surface works – those boarded off building sites that are cropping up all over London right now.

It’s not just human bones on display though, as our medieval forbears used to polish cow bones, to use as ice skates. It seems that the marshy lands by Moorgate froze quite regularly in winter and made for a popular ice skating park.

The exhibition is open on Saturday (7th July) only – and is just around the corner from Bond Street tube station – it’s in The Music Room, next door to the Grays Antiques Mews on South Molton Lane (map link).

It is hoped that they can stage a longer exhibition elsewhere, and probably in a museum, but tomorrow offers a chance to get a glimpse of how Crossrail is uncovering some of London’s history.

Don’t forget to say hello to the chap on display.