The London Charterhouse

The London Charterhouse

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Visitors unknowingly walk over the dead in Central London, every day.

London’s population has been decimated by plagues on several occasions, but none more devastating than the Black Death, followed by the Great Plague, 300 years later.

The Great Plague wiped out 20% of the city’s population, within seven months.

All of those bodies had to go somewhere, so they were piled up to five people deep, in communal pits dotted around the city.

The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings dating back to the 14th century.

During building work for the Crossrail in 2013, a plague pit was discovered at Charterhouse Square.

This dated back to the Black Death in 1348.

Historians believe that up to 50,000 medieval Londoners, might have been interred in the area.

This makes Charterhouse Square, one of the biggest London plague pits!

DNA analysis revealed fascinating insights into the plague victims’ lives in medieval London, including everything from their age and diet to their geographical origins.

Decades after the Great Plague, The Charterhouse was established as a Carthusian monastery.

It was a place where this holy order, could spend their days in prayer and service to their God.

For nearly two centuries, the order flourished until it was closed by Henry VIII‘s, dissolution of the monasteries.

The Monks tried to put up a fight, but when the soldiers breached the monastery, Prior John Houghton was dragged out into the courtyard.

He was hung and then drawn and quartered, before the eyes of his brothers in Christ.

The remaining ten monks were rounded up, and sent to London’s Newgate Prison.

9 starved to death while the tenth was executed.

A horrific end to men of such great faith.

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, then bought The Charterhouse.

It wasn’t long until Howard’s tenure in The Charterhouse, came to an end.

Apparently hatching a plan to marry, Mary Queen of Scots was enough to get him tossed in the dreaded Tower of London.

When he was released, he was placed on house arrest until he was arrested for his involvement in the plot to assassinate Elizabeth I.

This time his station in life didn’t save him.

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, lost his head on the chopping block.

Since that time, The Charterhouse has been an almshouse, a hospital, and a well regarded boys school.

And through it all, everyone who has ever lived or worked there, knows all too well that this timeless building is very much haunted.

Residents of The Charterhouse, have reported that if you silently stand still over the plague pit, you can hear the ghostly victims of the premature burials, crying out for mercy.

Sadly, that mercy never came, and those victims succumbed to death’s cold embrace.

It’s said that the spirits of 35,000 victims, wander the square at night.

When the sun sets and the Charterhouse is quiet, residents have reported witnessing a curious sight.

The shadowy form of a monk has been seen silently floating through the courtyard.

He appears to be praying as he makes his way to the building.

Residents have also claimed to see the apparition of Thomas Howard descending the staircase, cradling his bloody, lifeless head under his arm.

It would seem that after many centuries of death, the Duke of Norfolk returns to the place where he spent his final moments of freedom.

It is still an almshouse for elderly men, who call themselves brothers, and in partnership with the Museum of London, the building is opened to the public for daily tours.

You can visit the free museum in the Charterhouse, to see one of the plague pit skeletons, on display.

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Source~spookyisles

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