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Pilgrims Progress Cancelled

Christians lose out to Oxford Street shoppers

Squall Download 4, May-June 2000, pg. 9.

A Christian pilgrimage which has taken place annually for the last 100 years is to end after this year because its passage along Oxford Street disrupts shopping. The Tyburn pilgrimage began in 1909 and commemorates 105 Christians hung drawn and quartered during the 16th and 17th century.

Oxford Street shop owners have consistently complained that the pilgrimage causes disruption to customers and affects their days profits.

The two mile walk begins at the Old Bailey (the former site of Newgate Prison) and passes along Oxford Street (once known as Tyburn Lane) before finishing at Tyburn Convent at Marble Arch in London where bones, bloodstained clothing and some of the hair of the martyrs are kept.

A Met Police Spokesperson acknowledged that this years pilgrimage would go ahead but said they had been informed it would be the last.

Mother John Baptist, a 77 year old nun at Tyburn Convent, said: “It is dreadful news. It is very startling. I don’t know what we can do. We will just have to see how powerful our prayers are.”