DEATH ON THE THAMES
London’s Human Flotsam and Jetsam with Jane Sidell
At Kensal Green Cemetery on Sunday the 13th October 2024 - 3:30 pm

In the classic opening shot of Hitchcock’s film “Frenzy” the body of the Necktie Murderer’s latest victim is washed up in the Thames outside City Hall. Ever since London was first settled back in the Iron and Bronze Ages, corpses have ended up in the river, by accident or by design.

Over time the Thames has yielded up a rich archeological treasure of human remains, many of which are prehistoric and thought to have been deliberate riverine burials. In this talk Jane Sidell will take a light-hearted look, backed up by respectful science, at discoveries of human relics in, and beside, the Thames. These include a Mesolithic skull at Tilbury, the Battersea Shield, the Roman Walbrook skulls and a post-medieval ‘pirate’ in Bermondsey. Trigger warning: there will be many images of human remains shown during the talk.

Tickets £12 including a Victorian punch and a 20% donation to a host of restoration projects at Kensal Green Cemetery. Please click here to purchase.

JANE SIDELL
Jane Sidell is the Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic England (formerly English Heritage), a post first held by Augustus Pitt Rivers in the 19th Century.

 

 

 

 

Kensal Green Cemetery Chapel