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Do you know what archeologists found when excavating around St. Pancras station? Have you ever heard of the mysterious Stone of Brutus that is allegedly vital for London’s survival?
Like most of the cities with thousands of years of history, London has many unsolved mysteries, and here are five of them.
The Cheapside Hoard
On 18th June 1912 workmen started to demolish a timber-framed building in Cheapside near St Paul’s Cathedral. While they were breaking up the floor, they noticed something glinting in the soil below. They quickly realised that they had struck the remains of a wooden casket from which a tangled heap of jewellery, gems and other precious objects had fallen. They had uncovered what is now known as the Cheapside Hoard and is the greatest collection of Elizabethan and early Stuart jewellery in the world and can be seen on display at the London Museum today.
No one knew who it belonged to or why it was left there. The London Museum is still hoping that historians from around the world will help to figure out where the gems came from and who left them behind.
The St Pancras Walrus
When St Pancras station was supposed to be expanded for the Eurostar, archeologists were tasked to excavate a historical mass grave near the station. This area had been used as a graveyard in the 19th century, and over 44000 bodies were buried there over a period of several decades. But one coffin among them was particularly strange. Alongside a human remains, the archeologists found… a walrus. And not just a regular one, but a Pacific walrus. These mammals can weigh up to two tons.
There is still no answer as to how and why this giant animal ended up in London. The most common theory is that it was dissected by medical students, however neither of medical institutions or universities have any records of this animal being brought to London and examined. In fact, to most people of that time walruses were still considered sea monsters.
The Natural History Museum Mystery Bug
In 2008 museum entomologist Max Barclay was having his lunch in the gardens of The Natural History Museum, when he noticed an unusual insect. He decided to examine it, and when checking it against the 28 million bugs that are on record in the museum, there was no match with any of them. Until today there is no explanation to where that unidentified bug has appeared in London.
The London Stone
There is a modest landmark at 111 Cannon Street, next to a regular office building. It’s called The London Stone, also known as The Stone of Brutus. This stone has been kept in London for thousands of years, yet historians still can’t fully understand what was its purpose. The legend says that it was a part of an altar used by Brutus the Trojan, the mythical founder of London. William Blake described it as a site of pagan sacrifice. Architect Sir Christopher Wren suggested that it was used by the Romans as a starting point to measure distances in London, as the stone stood right in the centre of the city.
The recorded history of the stone extends back even beyond the Medieval period: it is referred to in a document of Athelstan, the first Saxon King of All England in 10th century.
According to one of the many myths surrounding this artefact, as long as the Stone of Brutus is safe, so long London will exist.
Beast of Sydenham
If you’ve ever been out at night in London and seen something flash across your vision that looked slightly too big to be a fox or a dog, you may have spotted the ‘Beast of Sydenham’.
Also known as the ‘Palace Panther’, the number of very similar reports of a large black cat-like creature stalking the South London area since 2002 are difficult to ignore.
At first glance, this seems like yet another hoax, but the sheer volume of sightings as well as police involvement on multiple cases suggests the Beast of Sydenham may have been very real.
The first recorded attack of this mysterious creature happened on March 22, 2005, when a resident of the area walked out around 2 am to find his cat. He suddenly found himself lying on the ground, with a 5-foot-long black creature with huge teeth sitting on his chest.
The police registered scratches on his face and arms, caused by what must have been big claws.
The mysterious beast was sighted multiple times up until 2015, and was never seen since then. Until today, it is unclear to what this animal was, and how it appeared in London.
#london #mystery #unsolvedmysteries
0:00 Mysteries of London
0:17 The Cheapside Hoard
1:00 St Pancras Walrus
1:49 The Mystery Bug
2:14 London Stone
3:04 Beast of Sydenham