The space south of the chapel is so called and was used, as a burial ground; in the middle is a small square plot paved with granite, showing the site on which stood at rare intervals the scaffold on which private executions took place. It was specially paved by order of the late Queen Victoria.
The following people are known to have been executed on this spot:
1. Lord Hastings, by order of the Duke of Gloucester, in 1483.
2. Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, 19th May, 1536.
3. Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the last of the old Angevin or Plantagenet family, 27th May, 1541.
4. Queen Katharine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, 13th February, 1542.
5. Jane,Viscountess Rochford, 13th February, 1542.
6. Lady Jane Grey, wife of Lord Guildford Dudley, 12th February 1554.
7. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, 25th February, 1601
They were all beheaded with an axe except Queen Anne Boleyn whose head was cut off with a sword by an executioner brought over from St. Omer for that purpose. The bodies of all seven were buried in the Chapel of St. Peter.