East Smithfield Black Death cemetery
The Royal Mint medieval cemetery was situated at East Smithfield, E1. The Black Death cemetery was excavated in 1986-88 and covered approximately 2 ha in size. The cemetery was in use during 1348-1350 and was the first established Black Death cemetery in London (Grainger and Phillpotts in prep).
The burials were clustered in two areas. A total of 558 burials were excavated from the western cemetery; 300 individuals were uncovered from mass graves and a further 258 from single inhumation graves. The eastern cemetery revealed 192 individuals; 102 from mass graves and 90 individuals from single inhumations. It is estimated that approximately 40-50% of the cemetery is still in-situ below the Royal Mint’s courtyard (Grainger and Phillpotts in prep).
A total of 636 individuals from the two areas have been recorded onto the database.
