Age: 0
Sex: male
Date: 13 Jun 1908
Place: New Lane, Horselydown, Bermondsey
The body of a mummified infant was found under the floorboards in a top back room at New Lane in Horselydown near Tower Bridge.
It was found by a bricklayer employed by Messrs Potten and Son, Builders, whilst he was engaged with some other men in pulling down nos 6 and 7 New Lane in Mermondsey.
On Tuesday 26 May 1908, he had pulled up the floorboards in the top back room and discovered near the hearth what he took to be the body of a child lying on its back on the lath and plaster of the ceiling underneath.
A woman that had lived in the top back room at 7 New Lane for about two years, until about a fortnight before the discovery, said that there had been a new piece of board in one part of the room that had been there since they had occupied it.
The master builder said that in his opimiom that the floorinng on the spot of the hearth was made out of a box-lid and was evidently laid by an amateur.
The pathologist said that the body was that of a completely mummified child in a very shrunken condition.
The inquest at Southwark Coroner's Court returned an open verdict.
