Another month has gone by in which I was not able to visit places in London, however I thought you might be interested in some spectacular cemeteries in the outer London boroughs, which I’ve visited over the years. They are all very ‘Instagram-able’ if you fancy exploring any of them.  These four are some of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ burial grounds established in Victorian times when central London graveyards ran out of space as the population increased and land in ‘urban parishes’ was approved for burial (the Burial Act 1852.) The three I haven’t visited are:  Kensal Green Cemetery (the oldest at 1833), Highgate Cemetery (the famous one; Karl Marx is buried there, and most of the movies featuring English cemeteries are filmed there) and Tower Hamlets Cemetery (closed for burials in 1966 and is now a picturesque park). So they are all worth a visit when restrictions on travel are lifted.

These are the four I have visited:

West Norwood Cemetery: opened in 1837, 40 acres, and the first cemetery in the world to use the Gothic style, and one of the first landscaped cemeteries in London. It certainly is beautifully laid out, ‘a mixture of historic monumental cemetery and modern lawn cemetery’ (Wiki). It features a Greek Orthodox section and 69 Grade ll listed buildings and is also recognised by Lambeth Council as a site of nature conservation value. Famous people buried here: Hiram Maxim (inventor of a type of machine gun – nice!), Mrs Beeton (Cookery writer of the 1950s) and Henry Tate of (Tate and Lyle Sugar).

Abney Park Cemetery

Opened in 1840, 32 acres, originally an area of parkland laid out by Lady Mary Abney in the 18^th Century and converted to a cemetery under the Burial Act 1852. It became the main burial place of English nonconformists when Bunhill Fields in the City closed.  (I’ve mentioned nonconformists before, they were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries because they disagreed with state intervention in religious matters.) Wiki says: ‘It stands today as the most important burial place in the UK of 19^th century Congregational, Baptist, Methodist and Salvation Army ministers and educationalists’. Indeed, William and Catherine Booth, founders of the SA are buried here, along with their son Branwell and other SA commissioners. There’s a real sense of wilderness in this cemetery; it’s been used as a backdrop for Amy Winehouse’s music video for Back to Black, and interestingly, was used to represent Highgate Cemetery in Waking the Dead series 2. Why didn’t they just use Highgate…..?

Brompton Cemetery

Opened in 1840 in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, this is the only cemetery owned by the Crown and managed by the Royal Parks. Its 40-acre site is ‘one of Britain’s oldest and most distinguished garden cemeteries’ according to Wiki. It’s still open for burials and has a Visitor Centre! It is Grade 1 listed in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. The location has been used for the following films: Sherlock Holmes, Stormbreaker, Goldeneye and Johnny English. Famous people buried here include: Henry Cole, Founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal College of Music. Emmeline Pankhurst, prominent suffragette. John Snow, epidemiologist and anaesthetist who discovered the link between cholera and infected water. Sir Thomas Spencer Wells, President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Nunhead Cemetery

Opened in 1840, originally known as All Saints Cemetery, this is somewhat larger than the others at 52 acres and known for its ‘meandering paths’ according to Wiki. The cemetery had become overgrown with wild vegetation until the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery was formed to renovate and protect the monuments. With the help of Heritage Lottery funding paths were cleared and monuments were restored to make it the delightful place to wander in today. It’s now a local nature reserve and is an important habitat for birds and animals, retaining a woodland feel while being completely accessible. The cemetery has several interesting structures, including an octagonal Gothic chapel. (Gothic was a fashionable look in Victorian times, wasn’t it?) An episode of the BBC series Spooks was filmed here, but as with Abney Park, it was supposed to represent Highgate!

Thanks, as always, to Wikipedia, also to Tired of London, Tired of Life, Tom Jones, Virgin Books