Memorial day - 49

The subject of last weeks blog was the trees outside St Paul's Cathedral. If you walk north from St Paul's past the Old Bailey you come to a square, bounded on the north by Smithfield Market and on the south Saint Bartholomew's Hospital.

Set in the hospital wall are two plaques which commemorate the gruesome history of the location. In former times this was the site for public executions.

Read the details on the plaques and you will see just how shocking these events were. The objective was to cause as much pain and suffering before the prisoner died.

The plaque behind the iron grill commemorates Christian martyrs who were burnt at the stake. Named on the plaque are John Rogers, John Bradford and John Philpot executed in the years 1555 ~ 1557.

If the prisoner was wealthy he or she would bribe the executioner to provide alcohol and drugs to dull the pain. And to place a small pack of gunpowder at the base of the their spine, which would be ignited by the flames to kill them. The less fortunate would suffer a long lingering painful death.


The other commemorative plaque is to a far more famous, some would say infamous person, Sir William Wallace. A Scottish hero made famous by Mel Gibson in the 1995 film Braveheart.

From 1296 William Wallace led the Scottish patriots in their defense of their homeland against Edward I of England.

He was betrayed by his own countrymen and handed over to Edward.

He was brought to London and held prisoner in the Tower. On 23rd August 1305 he was stripped naked and pulled at the heals of a horse from the Tower to Smithfield. There he was hanged, but cut down before he was dead. His genitals were then cut off and stuffed in his mouth. He was then disemboweled. Even after all this he was still alive. He was then beheaded.

Even then they were not finished, his body was butchered into four parts. His head was dipped in tar to preserve it, before it was stuck on a spike on London Bridge.

He really must have upset Edward I.

Message don't mess with the British establishment!