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60
Coffins in St. John's Crypt.—In March, 1803,
the attention of the Vestry was called to offensive
smells arising from the coffins in the crypt of St.
John's Church, and it was referred to the Sanitary
Committee to consider the desirability of steps
being taken to remove them. The Medical Officer
of Health reported to the Committee as follows:—
In response to your request to report upon the condition of the
crypt of St. John's Church, I beg to state as follows:—Complaint
has been made of offensive effluvia in the crypt, also in some
adjacent premises.
I find mephitic fumes well marked both to the eight and to the
smell.
Some twenty years ago, the coffins and remains were collected
and enclosed in a brick vault where they have since remained.
The offensive effluvia have been constantly accumulating; on
opening the brick vault the coffins and remains were found
decayed away, so that individually they would be quite unrecognisable.
I, therefore, advise the Vestry to get these remains
removed from the crypt as soon as possible, for they are certainly
a nuisance and dangerous and prejudicial to those using the
building.
The Committee recommended the Vestry to
assist the Churchwardens of St. John in obtaining
the necessary permission, by faculty or otherwise,
to have the bodies removed, which the Vestry
approved.
The Churchwardens of St. John then applied to
the Home Secretary for an order for their removal,
and on the 19th. August Dr. Hoffman inspected the
crypt on his behalf, and on the 23rd November an
Order of the Queen in Council was issued requiring
that the whole of the human remains now lying in
the crypt beneath the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell,
be removed under the supervision and to the
satisfaction of Dr. J. W. Griffith, the Medical
Officer of Health for Clerkenwell, and forthwith
reburied in the consecrated part of Woking Cemetery.