Lunchtime Tourism: The secrets of the Gherkin at St Mary Axe
St Mary Axe is a five-minute walk from the commemorative plaque dedicated to the Aldgate Station 7/7 victims. There, in the shadow of one of London’s most famous buildings, is another monument to the innocent, an echo from our ancient past.
The Gherkin, designed by starchitect Sir Norman Foster, changed the way we think about skyscrapers and helped to unleash the artistic genius that is the City skyline. But its origins are rooted in terror.
In 1992 a huge explosion blew up the Baltic Exchange as part of a wider IRA campaign to inflict financial harm on the UK. The resulting economic damage was greater than the combined effect of 10,000 Belfast bombs detonated by the Provisional IRA in the previous 20 years.
Three people were killed. Thomas Carey, 49, Paul Butt, 29, and 15-year-old Danielle Carter. Between the Gherkin and the present Baltic Exchange is a black wall made of granite. Look to the left, and three separate columns stand sentinel to their memory. The new building triggered an archaeological excavation. During the dig, they found the body of yet another teenage girl, who, poignantly, was about the same age as Danielle. But she came from another age and from another city: Londinium. Around 1,600 years ago this girl was laid with her arms across her chest in an unknown grave.
Scientists date her at around 400 AD, around the time (380 AD) the Roman Empire had become officially Christian. Our girl, however, is placed North/South indicating a pagan burial. Roman cemeteries were always outside the City walls for health reasons – she, however, is inside. Houndsditch was the boundary, and, yes, as its name suggests, was also a dumping ground for canine corpses.
Who was she? She has a few grave goods, but nothing to tell a tale. That she was buried inside the London Wall may indicate high status. But she could also have been a slave. Or just a desperately unlucky local, like Danielle.
She was taken to the Museum of London, but in 2007 the Lady Mayoress insisted on a reburial. There was a service at St Botolph’s, next to Aldgate Station, where we began our story. The service followed the Roman rites for burial in keeping with her antiquity.
She was then reinterred under a laurel leaf plaque, with an inscription in both Latin and English that reads “To the spirits of the dead, the unknown young girl from London lies buried here”. You can find her today at the Bury Street exit of 30 St Mary Axe.
In the square’s sunshine, the Lunchtime Tourist should think of 7/7, the Baltic 3, and also the challenge of squaring remembrance with progress. New proposals for a 46-storey building at 65 St Mary Axe may wipe out the remains of the 13th century graveyard of St Augustine Papey. What would our unknown Londoner think of that? And what, pray, do you?
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