{On a slate-grey plaque with gold lettering:}
In 1585 Gregory Gunne predicted that one day a religious house would be founded at Tyburn. His prediction was fulfilled when Tyburn Convent was established in 1903.
Site: Tyburn Convent (5 memorials)
W2, Bayswater Road
We counted 5 memorials on the outside of this building: the relief showing Tyburn martyrs at attic level; the Gunne plaque at eye level on the blank wall towards the left, and then the group of three above the access slope: the Cardinal Godfrey stone plaque just below the large window; the green plaque below and the Tyburn Tree stone plaque below that. In addition to all this a modern information board gives: “Tyburn Convent perpetuates the memory of 105 Catholic martyrs who died on this spot.”
This Benedictine Convent was opened on 4 March 1903 by the order’s French foundress, Mother Marie Adele Garnier. The current building dates from 1963 and houses a Tyburn Shrine (which contains a replica Tree) which was open on a Saturday afternoon, with seemingly no access control. Not being of the faith we did not enter but the Great Wen has a photo, and IanVisits living up to his name has visited.
We keep reading that the convent is "on the site of the Tyburn Tree" or words to that effect but the pavement plaque at Marble Arch is accepted as marking the actual site of the tree.
Want to see the grisly relics of those hanged at Tyburn tree? Look no further, Tyburn Convent has just what you are after. Enter the site (rather lovely music), click Martyrs, then Relics and there they are: fingers and vertebrae, etc. The convent has a DVD to sell but we're not sure we could take it.
