The London Burial Grounds: Notes on Their History from the Earliest Times to the Present DayHolmes, Isabella M.
History
The London Burial Grounds: Notes on Their History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Holmes, Isabella M.
Cemeteries -- England -- London -- History
Since 1883, as complete a list as I could make of the London
burial-grounds has appeared in the Reports of the Metropolitan Public
Gardens Association, and I have, from time to time, been asked for
information about the more obscure ones. In the summer of 1894 the
London County Council instructed its Parks Committee to make a return of
all the burial-grounds existing in the County of London, with their
size, ownership, and condition. Having been applied to for information
and assistance, I offered to undertake the work. It involved some
additional research at the British Museum, and a fresh perambulation.
The offer being accepted I commenced the task in February, 1895, and
sent in the return in June, accompanied by 60 sheets of the ordnance
survey (25 inch to the mile), upon which the grounds were marked in
colours, viz., those still in use blue, those disused green, those
converted into public recreation grounds green with a red border. I gave
the number existing in the County and City of London as 362, of which 41
were still in use, and 90 were public gardens and playgrounds. This did
not include churches and chapels with vaults under them, but without
graveyards. It must also be remembered that the area was strictly
limited (as it is in this work) to that of the metropolitan boroughs, or
the administrative County of London with the City. The cemeteries in the
county do not represent all the parochial ones. There are, for instance,
those of St. George’s, Hanover Square, and Kensington at Hanwell, the
Paddington Cemetery in Kilburn, the Jewish at Willesden, and very many
more just outside the boundary, not to speak of a large number in what
is called “London over the Border,” which to all intents and purposes is
still London, although separated by the River Lea, and governed by the
West Ham Corporation.
The kindly notice taken of the return, which was published by the
Council in October, 1895, has encouraged me to prepare the present
volume, in which there is scope for a general view of the subject, for
further historical details, and for particulars of those grounds which
no longer exist.
The more public interest is brought to bear upon the burial-grounds, the
more likely is it that they will be preserved from encroachments. The
London County Council has special powers to put in force the provisions
of the Disused Burial-grounds Act, and it has the record of their actual
sites on the plans prepared by me. It is for the public to see that
these provisions are carried out, not only for historical, sentimental,
and sanitary reasons, but also because each burial-ground that is
curtailed or annihilated means the loss of another space which may one
day be available for public recreation; and considering that land, even
in the poorest part of Whitechapel, fetches about £30,000 per acre, it
is easily understood of what inestimable value is a plot of ground which
cannot be built upon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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