The Clink Prison Museum and the Crossbones Graveyard | Medieval London

hi ladies and gents sinead here with free tours  by foot london i have just come out of borough   food market and i'm standing in front of the clink prison museum one of the most notorious   medieval prisons in london now we're going to have  a little trip inside because i want to take you in   there and see some of the instruments of torture  it's quite terrifying in there actually so i'm a   little nervous about this but before we do firstly  today's tour is going to be about the bishop of   winchester winchester palace the klink museum and  a very somber memorial to the ladies that were   known as the winchester geese here in london we're  going to head to the crossbones memorial graveyard   what i want to talk to you first about is the area  that we're actually in right now this area was   known as the liberty of the clink and technically  the man who was in charge of this immediate area   was a chap called the bishop of winchester  now winchester was the former saxon capital   of the united kingdom so the bishops of winchester  when they came here in administrative business   well they needed a seat of well a very elaborate  palace shall we say to stay in and this is where   i'm about to show you is what is called winchester  palace and this is in southwark just by the golden   heim between the golden hind and borough food  market now there's a lot of history coming away   about the bishops of winchester but when it  lost its seat as the capital and london became   the administrative capital the bishops moved  to this area and i just want to show you the   remains of what was a very elaborate and one of  the most important medieval buildings in london   the 1400 year old remains well in fact these  remains rather are dating back to the 1400s   the bishop of winchester seat in london so i'm  going to turn the camera around so you can see   so here you have it right here just  in the area of southwark which was   outside the jurisdiction of the city of  london so literally this area was run   by the bishop of winchester now the bishops of  winchester were mostly tax collectors and they   collected tax from all the local residents in the  area but more on that to come in just a moment   this winchester palace is one of the largest and  most important buildings in all of medieval london   it was built in the 13th century as a home to the  powerful bishop of winchester and it was destroyed   by fire in 1814 uh founded in the 12th century the  bishop henry de bla b l o i s is his name he was a   brother actually of king stephen at the time the  palace was built to house the bishops in comfort   when they were staying in london so the remains  were part of a great hall so that's what you're   looking at right now the remains of a great hall  here in the bishop's palace and right up here   you will see that beautiful rose  window and this led down into vaulted   wine cellars in the basement that were attached  actually to the wharf here on the river thames so   they got all the special goods came directly in  here through underground passages and tunnels   so this area known as southwark ladies and gents  was traditionally the area of a den of iniquity   shall we say one of the poorest of the poor lived  here in the bishop of southwark it's whether   the theater the dastardly theater which was very  much frowned upon in medieval times here in london   actors and actresses didn't have much more social  standing than the ladies of the night themselves   it's where the brothels were and they were  known as stew houses in this immediate area   and when the bridge was built across the river  thames the first bridge crossing london bridge   young chaps used to fl arrive over here over the  bridge and give easy access over to the brothels   and the pubs and the ale houses and the theaters  in the area and they would avail of the local   prostitute services and the brothels in the area  now far from being displeased by the brothels in   the area the bishop of winschester actually taxed  the prostitutes and he licensed them essentially   making a considerable fortune from these poor  young girls and sex workers they were known as   winchester geese because they were under the  ward of the bishop of winchester and young   gentlemen went acro across the river and they  would rattle their change in their pocket be   surrounded by several of these winchester geese  who were effectively living in the worst slums   known to humanity and the cackling of the  competing of the geese for the gentleman's   affections is where the name we believe came from  winchester geese now um a very unfortunate history   surrounds these poor ladies of the night in  the area because although the bishop licensed   them to work as sex workers and and taxed the  brothels the final insult is when they were buried   they were buried in unconsecrated grounds and  it's a massive insult to these ladies and later   on i'm going to bring you to a cemetery in  the local area as well where they unearthed   about 15 000 remains of pulpers winchester geese  and babies that were all just thrown into this uh   crossbones cemetery without a care in the world  for them so they were good enough to be taxed   yet not good enough to be dignified with a decent  christian burial so due to the outcry of people   in london and particularly a certain group of  people they have set up a beautiful memorial   garden to the winchester geese but just here  is a little bit more about winchester palace   to show you the little information here  and the residents of the bishops of   winchester very influential bishops actually  they were all chancellors of the exchequer   so the minister for finance is technically what  that means and they were the chancellors of the   exchequers for the king um but also in and on  the premise of the palace was one of the most   terrifying prisons in history the medieval  prison the clink and right now i've just   spoken to the lady in there i'm about to head  downstairs and take a little tour of the clink   so this street is known as clink street in  fact and you'll see it up there kling street now ironically um of course the bishop made a  considerable fortune from taxing these girls   but you could literally be drunk and intoxicated  around these streets at nighttime as so many   people were gin was usually the drinker choice the  cheapest to make and the quickest to get drunk on   and we speak a lot about prostitution and the jack  the ripper tour as well in the east end of london   one of the most depraved neighborhoods  as well in the city of london but this   is medieval time so right here is the klink  prison museum and we're going to head in there   but it was pretty barbaric in here you could  be literally imprisoned for being intoxicated   and you might never see daylight  again which was um rather ominous some pretty barbaric forms of medieval torture in there  as well i'm just going to head in that direction   but i just want to give you this little bit of  information here as well so the kling prison is   the name given to all the prisons that have stood  on a number of sites in the visiting vicinity now   we believe clink is on a mata peg so it's to  represent the clink of the chains when the uh   the wardens were locking up the prisoners   the first prison in 1127 sorry i'm just under  london bridge there's quite a bit of noise above   was a cellar in the palace of the bishop of  winchester and the last was in dead man's   place park street the prison held protestant  and catholic religious martyrs of various times   and it was closed since 1780 when it was  burned by the anti-catholic gordon riders   so let's head in now i won't film at all i will  just film some of it because well we don't want   to be too long but look how ominous this is  it's actually quite creepy entering in here   so you might not hear me because there's this  monks chanting you are entering the original site   of the clint the prison that gives its name to all  others so the lady i'll just wait for her to let   me in i have to ring for the jailer i think says  thank you lovely this is really bizarre in here   so hopefully you'll be able to see this so  this would be obviously one of the jailers i hope it's not too dark for you i'll uh   see if we can get some sort of uh no entry  it says there so i guess we're going in here   and here appears to me oh it smells  really weird in here you guys   so this appears to be the very rich and  unjust bishop of winchester medieval   southwark some of the chains that they use  to torture these people the blacksmith's   work in process i make the stack i bend  the rings the hinges and the rivets nice let's have a look through here this  is actually quite creepy on my own you guys   thankfully you're with me so pictured above is the  impression of the initial sight of the king prison very well done actually the wife of the house answered for me  saying that it were great arms that i   had a good master and mistress then did  take out an action of trespass in the   court of the bishop of winchester  in southern so essentially ellen   arrived for a job and then innkeepers that's  what she's saying and it became a brothel or a   den of iniquity and she refused to work for him  so he either locked up here in the clink folks   so this is where we're going to visit later on as  the crossbones graveyard and it's the prostitutes   graveyard the plot of non-consecrated ground was  provided by the bishop of winchester as a final   resting place for single women tonight christian  burials yet they were good enough to tax at the   some of the older time you hear a  woman baby crying here oh my days   there's a woman hanging out  of the prison wall there   it's probably a little too dark of the  pink prison wall right there you guys   now we won't delay too long in here but we  just have a little walk around because i   wanted to show you another prisoner here  priest obviously father william weston   but this admission prices are about eight  pounds ladies and gents i think there's a   family price as well six pounds for seniors so  these are just some of the prisoners that were   famous prisoners that were married in the  clink john rogers people that were kept in it's here torture chambers the  one i'm quite interested in   oh here we go the catchpose an abiding danger to  all men and violently resist arrest and it may   be safer to take them into custody with from  a safe distance hence the catchpole oh i see   so they would catch them around the neck if they  resisted arrest barbaric medieval prisons you guys   so the weapon of war is a hybrid of the  conventional mace and military flail the   chain allows the ball to be swung around the  edge of the opponent's shield it says wow torture in england water torture the gallows  wow look at this literally heads on spikes   like william wallace on london bridge and all  along london bridge in fact people's heads were   displayed on spikes as a warning to  future treasonous subjects particularly   the likes of what tyler the head of  the peasants revolt and william wallace so that's a description of being hung drawn  and quartered i'm thinking this video should   come with a pg warning maybe now this is  quite nice over here this is a memorial   to the prisoners of the trunk thankfully  something to remind them of 1386 to 1712 this displayed bodies of wrongdoers served as a  warning to others oh wow so they displayed the   bodies on trees as a warning to others  in these steel types of gibbot bars terrifying for some people particularly  between 11 36 and 1868. it's estimated over 200 000 people were  publicly executed in london between those years   and in some sort of a red room now and the prerequisite gift shop on the  way out oh amelia dyer this is the um   the baby killer she was executed in the old  bailey she was responsible for the death of up   to it was over sorry literally four thousand  babies she was hanged at newgate in 1896. she was a midwife and she was providing  children to um of unmarried mothers which   was quite scandalous at the time two childless  couples um they were paying for the children   she ended up killing most of the results  complete psychopath she eventually was   hanged when she was caught on the 10th of june in  the old bailey which was formerly newgate prison we showed you that on the city of london so that's  the inside of the clinic okay so i'm pleased to   be above ground after that you guys um i know  it's only a museum but it felt really eerie and   just the smells in there etc so the clinton  museum another huge medieval building of   importance in this immediate area but thankfully  to nicola one of our subscribers and hi nicola   she suggested that we take a little walk and pay  our respects to the winchester geese and that's   where i want to take you next now just a little  bit of background on the prostitutes in the area   perceived essentially to be um obviously the  ladies of the night they were affirmed upon   but what's quite ironic about these ladies  of the night is that even though the bishop   of wenchester attacks them we know that they  were just thrown into this pit and just buried   without any christian burial but they were  also kind of perceived as welcome distractions   for the gentleman in the area because ironically  sodomy and masturbation was a mortal sin at the   time which is so bizarre so they were perceived  as welcome distractions to keep the men from   pleasuring themselves elsewhere shall we say so  we're going to head down and pay our respects   to these when they try to extend the jubilee line  they found over 150 remains now they were usually   the peasants in the area uh infant mortality rates  were very high as well so a lot of infants and   actually the 150 remains there's only one percent  of what was actually found in here so it's a very   somber place and i think it's very important  that people come here to pay their respects   and the crossbones the friends of crossbones  society are the ones that deserve massive   recognition for what they've done in preserving  this area and making a garden of remembrance   just one second sorry folks to the 15 000  forgotten people that were here uh just a quick   mention as well syphilis was um there was a huge  rate of infection of syphilis in the area as well   obviously because of the amount of prostitutes  in the area there's been some very famous people   oscar wilde being another lenin the russian  revolutionary and several others that is quite   fascinating so syphilis commonplace in the  area at the time so that would have been a huge   uh cause of death in the area  so but we're going to go down   and just say a little prayer down here and just  to show you this little hidden away unknown   burial garden of memories to the victims or the  winchester geese and the pulpers in the area   so thankfully their legacy lives on  with this gorgeous garden of remembrance   and i hope you enjoy it and uh it might be  somewhere that you'd consider coming maybe   just to see for yourself when you're in london  next stop the crossbone rail cemetery so as   promised ladies and gents i brought you down  here to what is called crossbones graveyard   a very somber place considering that they found  over 15 000 remains of women children and men   who lived worked and died in this impoverished and  notoriously lawless part of london so it says here   the history of the place is nothing confined to  some distant past it's an ongoing work in progress   since 1966 the friends of crossbone have worked  to protect the site and to raise awareness of its   historical cultural and spiritual significance  so initially when they were unearthing   an extension on the jubilee line they found  remains of over 150 people which was only   one percent of the amount of people that were  actually buried here the museum of london arrived   and they excavated the site and found these  remains so now people come here to pay tribute   to the winchester geese and the pulpers that were  left here and buried here in unconsecrated grounds   as previously mentioned they were good enough  to be taxed yet they weren't given the dignity   of a decent burial so thanks to the tireless  work of the friends of croft bones and the poet   john constable they usually have a vigil here  on the 23rd of july every month remember the   the forgotten essentially so these ribbons are  all to represent the lives that were lost and so   cruelly disregarded in this pulper's gravesite  in london so amazing work by these people to   ensure that their memory lives on i believe the  dean of southwark comes here any once a year   and will perform a mass here for the lost  souls so a very somber graveyard here in london   a little bit off the tourist track not  something that people are too familiar with   but the history of the winchester geese  and they were the ladies of the night   under the ward of the bishop of winchester and  framed there in the background by the shard   so make sure you come here to pay your  respects you can tie a little ribbon there   on the wall as well um i seem to have  stumbled upon a film crew here as well so may they rest in peace now

Channel: Free Tours by Foot - London

Views: 64,820

Keywords: clink prison, clink prison museum in london, winchester geese, crossbones graveyard london, medieval london, southbank london, borough market, london walking tour, clink prison museum, clink prison london, the clink prison, the clink, clink prison museum london, bishop of winchester, winchester palace

Id: kuIqxI1UVmY

Length: 22min 58sec (1378 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 12 2021