In the teeth of five skeletons, scientists have recovered DNA of the bacterium responsible for the 1665 Great Plague for the first time. The skeletons were found in a mass grave that we excavated for Crossrail's new Elizabeth line station at Liverpool Street in London. The 1665 outbreak was the last major bubonic plague outbreak in Britain but claimed almost a quarter of the population; an estimated 100,000 Londoners.
