This modest looking watch tower with its grim purpose firmly embedded in the past, was built to deter the grisly practice of body snatching from the adjoining St Sepulchre Church graveyard.
As the science of human surgery developed in the late 18th century, there was a lack of cadavers for students at the nearby St Barts hospital to study.
The law at the time stated only bodies of those executed for murder could be used for anatomical study and though bizarrely hundreds were hung for trivial crimes, only a comparatively small number were convicted of murder.
Courtesy of Wikipedia: A painting of body snatchers at work on the wall of the Old Crown Inn in the High Street of Penicuik in Midlothian
This led to the rise of the ‘Resurrection Men’ whose practice of body snatching became a lucrative business. The body snatchers were careful to steal only the body from the grave – as this was considered just a misdemeanour – while taking any possessions left behind like jewellery, was a crime and attracted a harsh penalty.
A nearby pub called the Fortune of War (no longer there) acted as a sort of macabre ‘showroom’ where medical staff from the hospital would come and inspect suitable bodies lined up in its back rooms.
Body snatching largely died out in 1832 when the Anatomy Act was brought in, making the bodies of any unclaimed individual available to anatomy schools. Leaving the Watch Tower as a reminder of a gruesome practice thankfully now long gone.