Biohazard Risk As Bones Discovered at Farringdon Crossrail Site

Ruth Bloomfield, writing in Building Design, reports that preparation work has been halted at the Farringdon – Barbican Crossrail station site after human remains were discovered.

Government scientists are testing the bones for diseases such as bubonic plague and anthrax, while archaeologists are assessing their age and historic interest. The bones were found in an exploratory borehole close to the planned Farringdon Crossrail station on Charterhouse Street in central London. Charterhouse Street runs alongside Charterhouse Square from Barbican to Smithfield.

"We found a body — or at least some human bones — last week," said a Crossrail spokesman. "The Museum of London has taken it away to see how old it is. They think it could be 200 to 300 years old. They are also being tested for contamination by the Health Protection Agency at Porton Down.

They probably came from the former burial ground at St Sepulcher’s Church, which had a workhouse attached to it."

In 1348, the area was rented from the Master and Brethren of St. Bartholomew's Hospital as a graveyard and plague pit for victims of the Black Death pandemic. A chapel and hermitage were constructed. In 1371, this land was used for the foundation of the London Charterhouse, a Carthusian monastery.

The name is derived as an Anglicisation of La Grande Chartreuse, whose order founded the monastery. The monastery was closed in 1537, during the Dissolution of the Monastries. As it resisted dissolution, the monastery was treated harshly - the Prior was hung, drawn and quatered at Tyburn and ten monks imprisoned. Nine of these men starved to death and the tenth was executed three years later at Tower Hill.

Anthrax can lie dormant in spore form for centuries, but if disturbed it can spread through the air. When the Metropolitan Line was dug in the mid 19th century, anthrax spores were released, killing several people. The bacteria that causes bubonic plague may also survive, and dealing with ancient remains is an occupational hazard for rail projects in the City.

When Saint Pancras was built in 1865/7, construction involved clearing the site of a
fever hospital and associated cemetery with large scale disinterment and reinterment of bodies required.

Nick Bateman from Museum of London Archaeology said once the bodies had been tested they would be reburied in consecrated ground or kept in the museum archive. He said archeologists were aware of potential biohazards and took every precaution. As a result, there have been no known cases of workers being infected.