Here Lay Your Hearts - special Crossbones opening September 15th

Our volunteer wardens will be opening Crossbones Graveyard and Garden of Remembrance to the public on Sunday 15th September from 1pm until 6.30pm as part of the Totally Thames Festival’s Here Lay your Hearts performative walking tour.

All are welcome to visit the garden during opening hours. Read on to find out more about Here Lay Your Hearts - an audio play and walking tour inspired by the Winchester Geese, historical sex workers of Southwark many of who are thought to have been buried at Crossbones Graveyard.

Here Lay Your Hearts - an audio journey

Here Lay Your Hearts is an audio journey through London’s past from Monument to Crossbones Graveyard. Scatter Theatre Company and the Totally Thames Festival invite you to hear the voices of Southwark women known as the Winchester Geese - sex workers - who, despite being licensed by the church until the 17th Century, were denied Christian burials. Here Lay Your Hearts is about the women who lived and worked in Southwark and how their stories have been ignored or lost over time.

To mark the launch of the self guided audio journey there will be a series of performative walking tours on Sunday 15th September finishing at Crossbones Graveyard (until 6.30pm only).

Sunday 15th September walking tour details

Dates and Times: Sun 15th Sep 2024, 12pm - 7:30pm (visits to Crossbones before 6.30pm only)

The launch day walking tour ticket includes a full day ticket to the Golden Hinde and live performance. For tickets, click here.

The audio will also be available online to access individually for the rest of the festival period.

Crossbones Graveyard - inspiring art

The title of Here Lay Your Hearts may be familiar to visitors to the garden - you’ll see it engraved on the wooden entrance and comes from John Constable’s The Southwark Mysteries, a contemporary cycle of mystery plays inspired by Crossbones Graveyard and those buried there. The plays were performed at Southwark Cathedral and Shakespeare’s Globe in 2000.