One of my favorite places in London is the Brompton Cemetery, so on my last day I made sure to find the time to have a wander through it. When the cemetery opened in 1842, London was the world’s largest city and had a population of over two million people. The city’s churchyards could not meet the demands of the surging population and so some enterprising businessmen came up with the idea of creating a string of privately owned, garden cemeteries funded through the sale of shares on the stock market. These cemeteries came to be known as London’s Magnificent Seven. In the case of Brompton Cemetery, things did not go as planned. For reasons too complex to go into here, BC is the only English cemetery owned by the crown and managed by the Royal Parks Agency. To learn more about the cemetery’s fascinating history I highly recommend The Friends of Brompton website.
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London, January 2017
The 39 acre Brompton Cemetery lies between the Fulham and Brompton roads in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. As you can see from the map pictured below, the cemetery is laid out in a grid-like pattern.
Designed by architect Benjamin B. Baud
The main Ceremonial Way culminates in a dramatic architectural ensemble recalling Bernini's piazza in front of St Peter's in Rome, with flanking colonnades curving outwards to form a Great Circle, closed at its southern end in a domed Anglican chapel
Baud’s original plans included two additional chapels, one Catholic and the other Nonconformist, but because of financial constraints they were never completed. Even though Baud’s grand design was never fully realized there is nothing incomplete about the final layout.
I entered the cemetery through the less imposing South Lodge entrance which is accessed via the Fulham Road.
The original design called for a combination of common and private graves, closely spaced in tidy rows and was meant to accommodate about 60,000 plots
Plots on the east side were designated as 'private' graves, sold 'in perpetuity' with heritable deeds; these could be up to 19 feet (5.8m) deep, typically to contain brick-lined vaults beneath large monuments or mausolea. This encouraged wealthy families to build grand monuments and mausolea to accommodate several generations, as enduring symbols of worldly affluence and prestige.
I decided to head west on one of the smaller streets where the graves of the less wealthy Londoners are to be found.
On the west, large sections of cheaper 'common' graves accommodated several unrelated coffins in one deep cut with no right to erect a monument above; some were dug almost 22 feet (7m) deep to take up to ten adult burials. There are very few actual paupers' graves.
Weather and the passage of time have given many of the gravestones permanent anonymity. The trees droop gracefully, their trunks entwined with ivy and everywhere the vegetation runs riot.
Unlike the grander tombs found along the cemetery’s central axis and to the east, the gravestones here crowd closely together. Over the years, in all sections of the cemetery, headstones have moved, they now face in all directions and are at various heights. To me these things just add to the charm as does the fact it is welcoming to all. There are always bicyclists, joggers, children, people walking their dogs or simply enjoying being outside.
From the Royal Parks website
Brompton Cemetery is listed as a Site of Nature Conservation Importance. It is home to a wide variety of bats, amphibians, invertebrates and birds, as well as more than 60 species of tree. More than 200 species of moth have been identified in the Cemetery.
It was mid day and sunny at the time of my stroll, so between the time of year and the sun in my eyes I can’t tell you much about the wildlife in the cemetery. Never in my life have I had such perfect weather during a visit to London and while I am not complaining, I did realize that I have never experienced anything quite as harsh as the glare of a bright January morning in Chelsea. Sunglasses were useless, as were the majority of photographs captured by my I phone. Still what I did manage to see was beautiful.
As I started to head north I came across some very well fed squirrels. One of them even came and sat on my foot and stared at me longingly. Eventually he realized that nothing edible was forthcoming and he bounded off to look for better prospects.
I came across what I believe is a new grave ready for landscaping.
The Great Circle itself is filled with graves, some modest, but most quite substantial and all weathered to varying degrees.
Looking north from within the circle, the bell tower is visible above the entrance to one of the colonnades.
The Catacombs
The catacombs lie under the longer colonnades north of the Great Circle and are accessed by stairways which lead to large black cast iron doors. The doors display intricate designs such as entwined serpents and winged hourglasses.
Below is a shot of one of the west colonnade’s entrances topped by the bell tower.
The catacombs were built with enough room to house thousands of coffins, but they were not a success and only about about 500 internments ever occurred.
In 1995 the Catacombs were opened to the public for the first time since 1911 when the Home Office padlocked the catacomb's wrought iron gates to prevent the vandalism of coffins. As the catacombs are only open to the public one day a year, I did not get to see them.
Military
From 1854 to 1939 Brompton was designated as The London District's Military Cemetery, so quite a few servicemen are buried here, including more than 300 military personnel who lost their lives in one of the two world wars. There are also 13 Victoria Cross recipients among those interred here.
The monument on the far right of the photograph below is very beautiful and I had a cropped version that showed it well, but the image library refused to let me use it although it was well within the parameters. It likes to flex it’s muscles periodically I guess.
Some tombs in particular bring a feeling of immediacy to the grief that must have enveloped friends and family, or at least they do to me. One such example is that of Pilot Officer James Graydon Riess who died of his injuries in 1928, he was only 19.
In front of the eastern colonnade is the funerary monument of Reginald Alexander John Warneford, VC. The poppy wreath laid on Remembrance day retains it’s bright color more than two months after placement.
Here’s a cropped version for detail.
The Victoria Cross is the highest and most prestigious medal for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. The official publication of his award from the London Gazette
For most conspicuous bravery on the 7th June 1915, when he attacked and, single-handed, completely destroyed a Zeppelin in mid-air.
This brilliant achievement was accomplished after chasing the Zeppelin from the coast of Flanders to Ghent, where he succeeded in dropping his bombs on to it from a height of only one or two hundred feet. One of these bombs caused a terrific explosion which set the Zeppelin on fire from end to end, but at the same time overturned his Aeroplane and stopped the engine.
In spite of this he succeeded in landing safely in hostile country, and after 15 minutes started his engine and returned to his base without damage.
Unfortunately, a mere 10 days later Warneford’s plane crashed due to a catastrophic malfunction and he died from his injuries.
The rather unusual tomb pictured below belongs to General Alexander Anderson (1807-1877). He served in the Royal Marine Light Infantry.
I really love the design of this next monument. It is so organic and it encompasses both land and sea.
I have a thing for verdigris so of course I was drawn to the tomb of Major Matthew Boyd Bredon. It was only after reading the plaque that I realized that this monument was of interest for reasons other than mere decoration alone.
The plaque indicates that Bredon died in April 1900 in Swatow, China so I immediately knew that this death occurred around the time of the Boxer Rebellion. Swatow or Shantou as it was also known, was one of the so-called treaty ports imposed on China by the British and other foreign powers who wanted to open up trade. A treaty port was not necessarily a port, but was a separate community where foreigners lived according to their own customs, traditions and rules of law. I wanted to see if the date and place of Bredon’s death were anything more than mere coincidence and after some research I found a book online about armorial coats of armor which refers to Bredon and notes that he was in the 3rd Batt. Royal Irish Fusiliers and that he was the Deputy Commissioner of Customs, China. That would certainly explain his presence in China and he may have simply died from sickness or disease.
Below is the Egyptian inspired, granite mausoleum of rich socialite Hannah Courtoy who died in 1849. To read about the theories that it is a fully functioning time machine check out this piece from The Independent.
Beautiful statuary below.
Just west of Central avenue between the north entrance and the colonnade lies the funerary monument of shipbuilder and art patron Frederick Richard Leyland. The stunning Arts and Crafts tomb was designed by the Victorian artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones and it is the only one he ever did. The monument is comprised of a stone chest decorated with copper floral scrolls, it sits atop short, Romanesque columns and has a copper roof that was worked to look like fish scales.
Composer Alfred Mellon’s funerary monument stands tall.
The lime trees that stand sentinel on either side of Central Avenue heading towards the Brompton Gate still exist today.
From 1952 to 1996 the cemetery allowed no new burials with the exception of established families and the military. Now it’s once again available for single or family burials, albeit with much shorter leases. I hope you enjoyed this tour of Brompton Cemetery, it’s only a fraction of the whole, due to time constraints.
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