Skeletons found in London archaeology dig reveal noxious environs

The discoveries were made at a 19th-century burial site at New Covent Garden market

News reports and social media anxiety may make us feel that life is tough in Britain today but the extraordinary findings of a new archaeological excavation have provided a salutary reminder that, a couple of centuries ago, it was so much worse.

Archaeologists who worked on an early 19th-century burial site at the New Covent Garden market in south-west London where about 100 bodies were found have said that they contain evidence of arduous working conditions, a noxious environment, endemic diseases, physical deformities, malnutrition and deadly violence.