The Archaeological Experience at St Luke's Church, Old Street, Islington

Oxford Archaeology (formerly the Oxford Archaeological Unit) undertook an archaeological recording action at the Grade I listed St Luke’s Church, Islington between July and December 2000 on behalf of ABL Cultural Consulting Limited.
Oxford Archaeology was in attendance on Necropolis for the duration of the work.

The work took place in advance of construction and refurbishment works in order to provide new educational and rehearsal facilities for the London Symphony Orchestra. The work comprised recording of funerary architecture, and the crypt structure along with exhumation of all burials in the northern and southern churchyards as well as clearance of all the burials in the crypt. A total of 1053 burials have been recorded and removed.

Osteological analysis on all the skeletal material was largely undertaken on site and completed in Oxford. The skeletal sample of 896 was divided into high and low resolution samples. The high resolution sample comprised 241 named individuals who were osteologically recorded in full. The remainder were unnamed individuals; for this group basic demographic information was recovered, stature was calculated where possible, a detailed dental record was compiled and pathology recorded where seen. Dental samples were recovered from the named individuals with the aim of
refining microscopic ageing techniques.

A total of 712 coffins were recorded and removed for reburial. These comprised lead, wood, zinc and iron. A variety of coffin fittings have also been identified and recorded.