Under the chancel: discovering a ‘hidden’ crypt in a Lambeth church
Lucia Marchini Posted On August 3, 2017
Archaeological work at the Garden Museum, housed in the former Lambeth parish church, delivered a major surprise. In January 2016, as builders set to work on a concrete slab, a hole appeared underneath. This cavity led to a long-forgotten crypt where, by the light of mobile phones, coffins could be seen stacked in the gloom. Steve White told Matthew Symonds how his team studied a space that was too dangerous to enter.
There is a reassuring permanence to churches. Exploring them in settings ranging from a country hamlet to a picturesque plot in suburbia reveals ranks of memorials clinging to the walls and ornate ledger plates under foot, worn smooth by generations of congregations. It is a space where the great and good of the parish can literally become part of the stonework. Seeing this accretion of the centuries provides a sense that this is a place where monuments will endure, and the dead can rest in peace. In many cases, it is also an illusion. Few churches demonstrate this as dramatically as Lambeth.
https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/under-the-chancel-discovering-a-hidden-crypt-in-lambeth-church.htm
