The burial ground was located in the parish of St Botolph without Bishopsgate and in Bishopsgate ward, just north of London's wall and where Broad Street station once stood, a site now located under the west half of modern Liverpool Street (the road), within the north-east corner of the modern City of London. Until 1569, the site of the New Churchyard was an undeveloped plot of land located on the eastern edge of Moorfields proper, or lower Moorfields, one of the last pieces of open land in the City of London, near Bishopsgate. The site was originally part of the lands of Bethlem Hospital and, by the 16th century, was being used as a garden. The plot became part of the lands of the City of London Corporation following the Dissolution in 1541, and was being leased as a tenterground immediately prior to its conversion into a burial ground in 1569.^[10]

By the late 1560s the City of London Corporation recognised that London was in need of a municipal or "common" burial ground, particularly during times of epidemics and high mortality. In July 1569, the Lord Mayor Sir Thomas Rowe issued orders to convert the land for burials. A man called John Sherbrooke, from the parish of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, was recorded as the first to be buried at the ground, sometime between 19 January and 19 February 1570 (new style).^[5] The ground was to be "free for the whole Citie to burye in without payinge anything"; the only permissible charge was for grave digging which was set at 6 pence per burial.^[11] A pulpit was built at the centre of the ground and an annual public Whit Sunday sermon was performed between 1570 and 1642, which the mayor and aldermen were expected to attend.^[12][6]

In 1737, a new road of terraced houses called Broad Street Buildings was built adjoining the burial ground to the east and north. By this time the burial ground was densely filled, but burials continued despite the presence of properties overlooking the ground. The burial ground was closed by the Corporation following a petition from the residents of Broad Street Buildings, who complained of mass graves and "intolerable steams and vapours of a most noxious and pestilential quality". A decision to close the burial ground was reached on 1 March 1739 (new style): "...the said Burying Ground is now full of corps, and that it will be inconvenient, and dangerous to bury any more corps there till those that remain are sufficiently covered and decayed to prevent the noisome steam and stench which proceeds from such a multitude of dead corps being buryed, and not sufficiently covered, which if not prevented may be dangerous and infectious...". Although burials continued until its closure, the last named individual buried at the site was Mary Burt who died aged 105 on 9 April 1738.^[13]

In 1762, the Corporation attempted to sell part of the burial ground for building, but the sale was cancelled following petitions from local residents, supported by the church of St Botolph without Bishopsgate. In 1772, the burial ground was converted into gardens and yards for the adjoining properties of Broad Street Buildings. All surface traces of the burial ground, including monuments and gravestones, were removed. Notable late 18th century residents of Broad Street Buildings included Ephraim d'Aguilar, David Ricardo and Benjamin D'Israeli.^[7]

Parts of the burial ground were exposed during the successive developments in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The Corporation authorised the creation of Liverpool Street in 1823. The constructions of the road (circa 1823–24) included a new sewer and a boundary wall, which unearthed the "mouldering bones of several hundred human bodies" that were first "scattered about in the most indecent manner" before being "partly re-interred in one pit … and partly carted away". A notable early resident of Liverpool Street was the Charles Roach Smith, the English antiquarian and amateur archaeologist, who noted the accidental discovery of human remains at the site in the mid 19th century.^[14]

In 1863 Broad Street Buildings and its gardens were sold by the City to the North London Railway (NLR) Company. The construction of Broad Street station from 1863 to 1865 disinterred thousands of burials.^[15][16]

Despite further disturbance during the 19th and 20th centuries, the first archaeological investigation did not take place until the mid 1980s, prior to the construction of Broadgate, and was undertaken by the Department of Urban Archaeology (DUA). During the construction of Crossrail, more extensive archaeological excavation of the site was undertaken by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) between 2011 and 2015. Part of the dig was covered by Time Team (specials) episode 55, aired in December 2013.

Around 400 skeletons were excavated during the DUA investigation of 1985–86 and were retained for study and analysis.^[17] Only a short summary of this work was published.^[18]

MOLA's 2011–2015 excavations were the largest archaeological study of London’s population from the 16th to 18th centuries. Detailed osteological analysis was undertaken on one quarter of the 3354 burials excavated, and revealed evidence of where these individuals came from, what jobs they had, what they ate, what illnesses they suffered and what medicines they took.^[19][20] Other finds included grave goods, gravestones, tombs and coffins, as well as evidence on the layout and operation of the burial ground.^[21] The site also revealed rare archaeological evidence of early preventative measures taken to thwart bodysnatchers,^[22][23] as well as mass burial of early 17th century plague victims.^[24]

The excavations of 2011–2015 have been documented via Crossrail's Learning Legacy website,^[25][26] and the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) website.^[27] The results have also made publicly available via publication, television documentaries and museum exhibition.^[2][28][29] The publication of the 2011–2015 excavations incorporated the findings and analysis of the 1985–86 excavation.

Notable burials include:

• Steven Bachiler (buried October 31, 1656), an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in America.^[30]
• John Biddle (or Bidle) (1615–1662), an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian, often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".^[31]
• Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654), an English botanist, herbalist, physician, and astrologer.^[32]
• William Erbery (or Erbury) (1604–1654), a Welsh clergyman and radical Independent theologian.^[33]
• Robert Greene (1558–1592), an English author and dramatist.^[34]
• Henry Jessey (1603–1663), dissenting minister and scholar, founding member of the "Jacobites" (Puritan religious sect).^[35]
• John Lambe (or Lamb) (circa 1545–1628) was an English astrologer.^[36]
• John Lilburne (1614–1657), also known as Freeborn John, an English political Leveller.^[37]
• Robert Lockyer (sometimes spelled Lockier) (1625–1649), an English soldier in Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army and a Leveller.^[38]
• Lodowicke Muggleton (1609–1698), an English religious thinker, who gave his name to Muggletonianism.^[39]
• Ann Overton (circa 1613–1665) (née Gardiner), wife of Major-General Robert Overton (circa 1609–1678), who was a prominent English soldier and scholar.^[40]
• John Reeve (1608–1658), English plebeian prophet.^[38]
• Dame Mary Rowe (died 1583), the wife of Sir Thomas Rowe, Lord Mayor of London 1568–1569.^[41]
• William Walwyn (1600–1681), an English pamphleteer, Leveller and medical practitioner.^[42]
• Sarah Williams (1648–1708) (formerly Jenkes, née Walwyn), the daughter of William Walwyn (1600–1681) and wife of John Williams (1636–1709), Bishop of Chichester. ^[43]

A series of "keepers", who were appointed by the Court of Aldermen, were responsible for management of the burial ground. This position and its duties were similar to that of a sexton. As a municipal non-parochial ground the management of the New Churchyard was overseen by the City, therefore, some administrative information survives in the records of the Corporation, principally the surviving Court of Aldermen repertories, City account books and journals of the City Lands Committee, which are all held at the London Metropolitan Archive.^[44] Unfortunately, there is no surviving burial register for the ground. Indeed, the ground may never have had its own burial register because registration for those buried at the New Churchyard occurred at the parish where the deceased had been resident and/or had died. As part of the 2011–2015 investigations, Crossrail undertook a volunteer project which aimed to compile an online searchable database of many of those who were buried at the site.^[45][46][47]

• Harding, Vanessa (2007). The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500–1670. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521009744.
• Hartle, Robert (18 January 2016). "Mary Godfree: the untold story of a Londoner and plague victim". MOLA. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• Hartle, Robert (2017). The New Churchyard: from Moorfields marsh to Bethlem burial ground, Brokers Row and Liverpool Street. London: Crossrail. ISBN 978-1907586439.
• Holmes, Mrs Basil [Isabella M.] (1896). The London Burial Grounds: notes on their history from the earliest times to the present day. London: T.F. Unwin.
• Hunting, Penelope (1991). Broadgate and Liverpool Street Station. London: Rosehaugh Stanhope Developments. ISBN 978-1873175026.
• Gander, Kashmira (10 March 2015). "Bedlam burial ground: Archaeologists excavating 3,000 skeletons from under London's Liverpool Street station". The Independent. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• Tuke, D (1882). Chapters in the history of the insane in the British Isles. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Wood, Anthony (1691). Athenae Oxoniense, Vol.2. London.

• "Bedlam burials". Current Archaeology. Current Publishing. 1 July 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Tunnel: the archaeology of Crossrail". Current Archaeology. Current Publishing. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Fast track to the past: Celebrating Crossrail's archaeology". Current Archaeology. Current Publishing. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Beating London's bodysnatchers". Current Archaeology. Current Publishing. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• McDougall, Hamish (9 March 2015). "Bedlam dig begins at Liverpool Street". Crossrail. Archived from the original on 12 March 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "The Bethlem Burial Ground". Crossrail. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Crossrail History Hunters to Unearth Secrets of Bedlam". Crossrail. 3 July 2014. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Plague pit with 3,000 skeletons uncovered at new Liverpool Street station ticket hall". The Telegraph. 9 March 2015. Archived from the original on 9 March 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Bedlam burial ground: Archaeologists excavating 3,000 skeletons from under London's Liverpool Street station". The Independent. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Bedlam's Big Dig". The New Yorker. 9 April 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Crossrail dig unearths forgotten London". BBC News. 24 December 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
• "Asylum burial site found amid Crossrail dig". BBC News. 8 August 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
• "Bedlam burials: Skeletons unearthed by Crossrail". BBC News. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
• "Bedlam burials: Skeletons removed at Liverpool Street". BBC News. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
• "Skeletons reveal perils of moving to London". The Times. 22 October 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Archaeology: Remembering the Ordinary People". History Today. 13 March 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Body Snatchers in London's New Churchyard: New Discoveries from Crossrail Project". Oxbow Books. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
• "Crossrail sites reveal more exciting archaeology". MOLA. 8 August 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Crossrail Bedlam burial ground dig begins". MOLA. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Crossrail mass burial pit may be from Great Plague". MOLA. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "1665 Great Plague bacterium DNA identified for the first time". MOLA. 8 September 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Archaeological research for Crossrail reveals the murky past of the New Churchyard burial ground". MOLA. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Bleak fortunes of 16th to 18th century Londoners revealed through scientific testing for Crossrail". MOLA. 22 October 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
• "Archaeological research for Crossrail completes: the UK's largest archaeology programme". MOLA. 26 October 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2018.