The Hidden Dead of St. Martin in the Fields

 This is St. Martin in the Fields.

This is the back of it with a cool warped window.

There's been a church at this site since at least 1222 or earlier- pretty long time for a church to exist. The oldest grave found here is from 471. Now, given London's tendency to bury their pious dead in churchyards- the first independent cemetery didn't crop up until 1819- one would think that the St. Martin's churchyard would be full to bursting. After all, that's simply how it went. Certainly a lot of churchyards look pretty full- lots of tombstones, many at interesting angles. That, however, is not the case here.

The St. Martin in the Fields churchyard, 24 January 2011.

The St. Martin's churchyard is only about two hundred feet by two hundred feet. Clearly, for a church as centrally located as this one (it's in Trafalgar Square), this was insufficient. A second St. Martin's churchyard exists, down in Pratt Street. Mostly the poor parishioners were buried here- the wealthy were buried in the churchyard proper. They're still there, but their headstones aren't. Although some remnants of cartouches and memorials are down in the crypt, most of the stonework is just... gone.
Kinda weird to think about. Here in America, most of our cemeteries are either family plots or big, sprawling things in the model of Nunhead and other Victorian cemeteries. We simply had more space to work with.  In London, they didn't, and so cemeteries get pushed aside or paved over.

This is the last remaining memorial in the paved-over churchyard. It's a fountain, could be piped- the lions have little bits of metal in their mouths- but it is January and there is no water.

So what happened at St. Martin's? Well, it is the royal family's parish church and is connected to the Admiralty and 10 Downing Street. You don't want that connected with a cholera epidemic, or to have a messy, difficult-to-maintain old graveyard. You want that to look nice. You want it to blend in with the stately marble buildings of Trafalgar Square. And so you remove the stones and pave it over and pretend it never was anything but a flagstone plaza. It's just something to think about. You think cemeteries and memorials will be forever, but they're not. In this case, it wasn't even a financial thing- the residents of this churchyard ended up paying for their prime real estate, while their less wealthy fellow parishoners still have their monuments. Nobody knows who's buried there- indeed, unless you go and look, there's no indication that anybody is. In short, it's kind of mysterious and would make for a really interesting research project...

But for now, I'm just using it as an introduction to the piece I'm writing about the Spa Greens. ^_^

About This Nonsense

Seems like everybody else is getting a travel blog to document their brief glimpse into the outside world. I've been told that I'll come back from this a new person. While that's probably not true, what is true is that this sort of record is useful and valuable. In my case, its utility is doubled, for not only will I use it to talk of my experiences, it shall also function as a place to share my research observations.

When I wrote my essay of intent for this study abroad program, I mentioned that my primary interest in London sat in its cemeteries, specifically the old ones. At the time, my intended thesis was about voodoo. That's changed now: My senior thesis is to be about marginalization in graveyards. If it doesn't make sense, don't worry. It does to anthropologists.

Anyways, this is mostly going to be a photolog. I suppose you should sit back and enjoy the pretty pictures.

Also, if you're one of my relatives, you're probably wondering about the title. The term "graveyard rabbit" is used to refer to a person who pokes about old graveyards, takes pictures, and generally documents their history. I prefer rats to rabbits. That's all.