In 1800 the population of London was 1 million but by 1850 it had grown to 2.3 million. Such rapid population growth resulted in a lack of burial space. The city’s small parish churchyards became dangerously overcrowded, leading to decaying matter getting into the water supply and causing epidemics of diseases such as cholera. There were instances of body snatching, bodies left out to rot or not buried deep enough and bodies cleared from graves too soon.
In 1832 Parliament passed a Bill authorising the establishment of a chain of privately operated garden cemeteries around the outskirts of the metropolis to alleviate the scandal of overcrowded city graveyards. Seven cemeteries opened between 1832 and 1841. In 1850 Parliament passed the Metropolitan Interments Act (succeeded two years later by the Metropolitan Burials Act), closing all inner London churchyards and crypts to further burial.
By the early 20th century, most of the garden cemeteries (apart from Brompton, which had been nationalised) were falling into disrepair, for a variety of reasons. By the 1960s most of them were no longer financially viable and their formerly landscaped grounds were left to nature. Shrubs and plants engulfed and destroyed the catacombs and headstones and the sites gradually became woodland. Eventually they were acquired by local councils and are now maintained with the help of volunteer groups.
Several of the cemeteries are now nature reserves that are a delight to wander around and they all offer a fascinating glimpse into our social history…
This post features: Kensal Green, Brompton, Bunhill, Abney Park, Nunhead, West Norwood, Tower Hamlets, The Novo but not Highgate – yet…
Kensal Green
Kensal Green Cemetery opened in 1833 and was the first commercial cemetery in London. The General Cemetery Company had purchased 55 acres of land for the cemetery in 1831, with a further 22 acres added later. See: https://www.kensalgreencemetery.com/
Brompton
Brompton Cemetery, consecrated by the Bishop of London in June 1840, is one of Britain’s oldest and most distinguished garden cemeteries. The cemetery is Grade I Listed on the Historic England Register of Historic Parks and Gardens, and all of the cemetery buildings are Grade II* Listed. The 39-acre (16 hectare) site lies between Old Brompton and Fulham Roads, on the western border of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, then a distant suburb and now in the heart of London…
See: https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/brompton-cemetery and https://brompton-cemetery.org.uk/
Bunhill
Bunhill Fields is a Nonconformist burial ground dating from the 1660’s and the site of around 123,000 burials. It’s the final resting place of John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, Daniel Defoe and William Blake, along with many other leading intellectuals, radicals and clergymen from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
See: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/city-gardens/find-a-garden/bunhill-fields-burial-ground
It is not one of the Magnificent Seven but I think it sufficiently intriguing to include in this post…
Abney Park
The site of Abney Park was formed from the estates of Fleetwood House and Abney House, the latter of which had been the home of renowned non-conformist and hymn writer Isaac Watts. This association quickly made Abney the foremost burial ground for Dissenters – those practising their religion outside the established church. It was founded on these principles, with a non-denominational chapel at its core, and was open to all, regardless of religious conviction. Uniquely in London, Abney was also originally laid out as an arboretum, with 2,500 varieties of plants. The London Borough of Hackney took over ownership of the site in the 1980s and started to manage it in partnership with the Abney Park Trust as lessee. See: https://abneypark.org/
Nunhead
Perhaps the least known, but most attractive, of the great Victorian Cemeteries of London. Consecrated in 1840, it is one of the seven great Victorian cemeteries established in a ring around the outskirts of London. It contains examples of the magnificent monuments erected in memory of the most eminent citizens of the day, which contrast sharply with the small, simple headstones marking common, or public, burials. It’s formal avenue of towering limes and the Gothic gloom of the original Victorian planting gives way to paths which recall the country lanes of a bygone era. See: https://www.fonc.org.uk/
West Norwood
The area was originally part of the ancient Great North Wood, from which Norwood took its name, with 40 acres of land being acquired for construction of the cemetery within the Parish of Lambeth in 1836. West Norwood Cemetery opened in 1837 with the later addition of the crematorium on site in 1915. The cemetery was one of the first Victorian cemeteries to open in London and is home to over 65 listed monuments. First known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery when it first opened, Lambeth Council took over management of the site in 1965.
See: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/03/the-west-norwood-catacombs/137626 and https://beta.lambeth.gov.uk/bereavement-services/our-cemeteries-crematoria/west-norwood-cemetery
Tower Hamlets
The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery opened in 1841, set up for the purpose of profit-making as well as the sanitation and health of the City. The site design was inspired by the garden cemeteries movement and both the landscape and the original buildings were designed by architects Thomas Wyatt and David Brandon. The original buildings included a lodge, Anglican Chapel, Byzantine style Dissenters’ Chapel and a Mortuary, all of which were demolished over the years, as well as the surrounding Grade II listed wall that still stands today. The cemetery closed in 1966 after the cemetery company ran into financial difficulties.
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is now a 31-acre nature reserve, London’s most central urban woodland and one of its ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries. It’s a people’s park, a sanctuary for wildlife, a place for remembrance and a site for community events, field studies and forest schools. See: https://fothcp.org/about/
The Novo Cemetery
Built for Sephardi Jews in 1733, what’s left of this cemetery dates from the 1855 extension and it’s one of only two exclusively Sephardic cemeteries in England. The story goes back further though, with London’s first Sephardi Jewish cemetery thought to have been built in nearby Velho & Alderney Road in 1657. The Novo Beth Chaim cemetery was built when the Velho & Alderney Road cemeteries were full.
By 1895 the Novo Cemetery was almost full and was formally closed for burials in 1905 for adults and 1918 for children. At that time most of the Sephardi community had moved out of the area and though the space was cared for, it suffered damage from bombing in WWII. The area visible today is a small percentage of the ‘newer’ (1855) graves. The ‘older’ section (1733) was carefully cleared with around 7,000 graves moved to Brentwood in Essex.
See: https://lookup.london/novo-cemetery/
The cemetery is located within the grounds of the Queen Mary University Mile End campus and surrounded by modern buildings. Novo Cemetery is free to visit every day, you just have to walk into through the Queen Mary campus, but there’s clear signage to find it. The address is Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS.
The Velho Sephardic Cemetery in Mile End, which is Britain’s oldest Jewish cemetery, opened in 1657, one year after the readmission of the Jews to this country in 1656, and the nearby Alderney Rd Ashkenazi Cemetery which has inscriptions dating from 1697.
In 1657, Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, a Portuguese merchant, and Simon de Cacares, an Amsterdam-born merchant, leased an orchard plot on this site next to an inn called The Soldier’s Tenement for fourteen years at an annual rent of ten pounds, which was about ten times its market value. Yet, in spite of the financial opportunism of landowner Henry Clowes, the Jewish community was treated with respect by many others – as reflected in the tolling of church bells from Aldgate and along the Whitechapel Rd when bodies were carried out here from the City of London. Opening Times: By Appointment – Please Contact – 020 8950 7767
See: https://spitalfieldslife.com/2020/03/28/at-the-velho-alderney-rd-cemeteries-x/
Highgate
Highgate Cemetery is the most famous of the “magnificent seven” and, of course, I’ve been there a couple of times but never took any pictures. Oh well, one day…
In 1836 an Act of Parliament was passed creating The London Cemetery Company. Stephen Geary, an architect and the company’s founder, appointed James Bunstone Bunning as surveyor and David Ramsey, renowned garden designer, as the landscape architect. A head office was opened at 22 Moorgate Street, London.
Highgate Cemetery was created with the purchase of 17 acres of land that had been the grounds of the Ashurst Estate, descending the steep hillside from Highgate Village. Over the next three years the cemetery was landscaped by Ramsey with exotic formal planting, complemented by the stunning and unique architecture of both Geary and Bunning. It was consecrated in 1839.
In 1854 the London Cemetery Company was so profitable that the cemetery was extended by a further twenty acres on the other side of its Swain’s Lane site. This new ground, now known as the East Cemetery, was opened in 1856. After years of decline, the London Cemetery Company was finally declared bankrupt in 1960 and was absorbed into the larger United Cemetery Company, which for the next fifteen years struggled to keep the cemetery afloat. Funds eventually ran out and the gates were closed. In 1975 The Friends of Highgate Cemetery was formed with the aim “…to promote the conservation of the cemetery, its monuments and buildings, flora and fauna, for the benefit of the public as an environmental amenity.” See: https://highgatecemetery.org/