The Nineteenth Century Cemetery

Geoff Austin, the secretary of the Friends, recently gave a talk on the evolution of the modern cemetery. The illustrated talk visited some of the more celebrated 19^th century cemeteries in France and England. Geoff’s talk will cover the following:

The Evolution of the Modern Cemetery

Up until the second half of the nineteenth century, most of the population of Britain, the United States and even the Australian colonies were buried in churchyards or burial grounds attached to churches.  The cemetery, as we know it, is essentially a nineteenth century phenomenon.

There were a number of things that led to the development of the modern landscape cemetery divorced from the influence of the Church.  These factors included:

The first great landscaped cemetery in modern Europe was the Parisian cemetery of Pere Lachaise. This cemetery with its serpentine paths was set out on a hill to the east of the city in 1804. Within its Arcadian landscape, classical monuments and vaults were erected as memorials to the dead. By 1820, Pere Lachaise had become the admired model for other European and American cemeteries.

The design of Pere Lachaise owes much to the English landscaped garden of the eighteenth century.  The fashion in landscape design in England in the eighteenth century was to create a ‘natural’ landscape which was, in fact, highly contrived.  Small hills, depressions or lakes would be constructed; trees and shrubs planted at strategic locations and small buildings and structures erected to create a landscape which was pleasing to the eye.  In some instances, monuments and mausolea would even be erected within the landscape as with the mausoleum at Castle Howard in Yorkshire.

The cemetery became the final resting spot for many famous 19^th and 20^th century figures including Frederic Chopin, Jacques Louis David, Balzac, Isadora Duncan, Marcel Proust, Sarah Bernhardt, Renae Lalique, Amadeo Modigliani, Edith Piaf; Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein and Jim Morrison from the 1970s rock group ‘The Doors’.

 Pere Lachaise can be easily visited.  It is now a short distance from central Paris.  Take the Metro to either Pere Lachaise or Gambetta.  The main entrance is located on Boulevard de Ménilmontant.  Maps of the cemetery are available for a fee at the entrance.

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The Glasgow Necropolis

Soon after, in the 1820s, the people of Glasgow took a hillside, which was not dissimilar to the hillside at Pere Lachaise, to establish the famous Glasgow Necropolis.  The proposed Glasgow Necropolis was intended to be non-denominational.  In the mid 19^th century the cemetery was regarded as the Westminster Abbey of Glasgow and nearly every eminent member of Glasgow Society who died between the 1830s and 1870s is buried or memorialised there.

Its setting and layout have led many commentators to claim that the Glasgow Necropolis is perhaps the most spectacular cemetery in Britain, certainly in Scotland.

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Kensal Green Cemetery London

The General Cemetery Company opened the General Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green in 1833.  Again the model for the cemetery was Pere Lachaise.  The cemetery covered some 77 acres.

As with many 19^th century English cemeteries, Kensal Green cemetery contains two chapels - an Anglican Chapel for the conformists and a second chapel for the non-conformists. Part of the cemetery grounds were consecrated for the use of the Anglicans while the remaining unconsecrated ground was used by the Dissenters. 

Both chapels are located atop subterranean catacombs.  These large spaces were constructed of brick.  Brick piers supported the roof. Within the space, shelves were constructed for the placement of coffins.  Catacombs were a feature of a number of other English cemeteries of this time and, for the user, were relatively expensive when compared to the cost of a burial plot.

The attractive landscaped grounds of Kensal Green soon proved popular.  However, the fashionable status of the cemetery received a major boost when it was to become the burial place of Princess Sophia and the Duke of Sussex, two of the children of George III.  No doubt due to their royalty, these two were buried closest to the Anglican chapel.

The General Cemetery Company is still in existence, the only one of the nineteenth century London private cemetery companies to have survived.  The cemetery today is overcrowded with monuments and suffers from basic neglect.  A crematorium was built within the grounds in 1939.

The cemetery is well worth a visit.  Take the Underground to Kensal Green, in West London.  Guided tours are run every Sunday and visit the Catacombs on the first Sunday of the month (although it would be wise to check for the latest details).

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Norwood Cemetery London

The first successor to Kensal Green was the South Metropolitan Cemetery at Norwood.  The cemetery was built on a hill and consisted of broad sweeping paths winding up to the two chapels on the hill.  The cemetery was opened in 1837 and covers 39 acres.

Unfortunately, the cemetery has suffered.  Bomb damage in World War II led to the demolition of the two chapels.  In 1966, the local Council, the Borough of Lambeth, took over the cemetery from the undercapitalised South Metropolitan Cemetery Company.  The Council embarked on a program of removing monuments and tidying the grounds.  Unfortunately, this has had the effect of changing the Victorian character of the cemetery.  However, there are still some monuments and features worth seeing.

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Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery covers 37 acres and was established by the London Cemetery Company.  Although not the oldest or biggest cemetery in London, it is probably the best known and most visited.

The first burial was in 1839.  It was a relatively exclusive cemetery yet its monuments are perhaps not as impressive or grand as those to be found in Kensal Green. As with Kensal Green, two chapels were constructed, one for the use of Anglicans and one for Dissenters.  Similarly, part of the land was consecrated for the burial of members of the Church of England, while the remaining unconsecrated land was for the use of others.

An 1865 guidebook to the cemetery stated:

No cemetery near London can boast so many natural beauties.  The irregularity of the ground, rising in terraces, the winding paths leading through long avenues of cool shrubbery and marble monuments, and the groups of majestic trees casting broad shadows below, contribute many natural charms to this solemn region.  In the genial summer time, when the birds are singing blithely in their leafy recesses, and the well cared for graves are dazzling with the varied hues of beautiful flowers, there is a holy loveliness upon this place of death ...

The one feature that sets Highgate apart form other London cemeteries of the period is the Egyptian Avenue and Circle of Lebanon. The 1865 Guidebook said:

As we enter the massive portals, and hear the echo of our footsteps intruding on the awful silence of this cold, stony death-palace, we might also fancy ourselves treading through the mysterious corridors of an Egyptian temple.

The Egyptian Avenue is flanked by two obelisks.  The iron gates give way to the Avenue which runs below ground level and is flanked on either side by family vaults.  At the end of the Avenue, is the Circle of Lebanon. This circular subterranean feature is flanked on either side by a series of family vaults.  A series of steps lead up from this subterranean feature to the higher ground.  In the very midst of the Circle of Lebanon stands a Cedar of Lebanon that predates the formation of the cemetery.

Notable burials include Catherine Dickens (wife of Charles Dickens), George Eliot (novelist), Michael Faraday (scientist), William Foyle of Foyle’s Bookshop and the Rosetti family - Gabriele Dante, Christina Rosetti and Elizabeth Siddal (wife of Dante Gabriel).

The London Cemetery Company’s finances went into decline after World War II and eventually the cemetery was taken over by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery.  The Friends of Highgate Cemetery conduct regular tours of the Cemetery.

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Abney Park Cemetery

This cemetery was founded by the Abney Park Cemetery Company in 1840 and covers 32 acres.  The cemetery was to be both a burial ground and an arboretum and the Company planted over 2,500 varieties of shrubs and trees and over 1,000 species of rose bushes, but this was never consecrated and was therefore available to all denominations. Dissenters from the established Church favoured the cemetery, but possibly due to their thrifty habits, the cemetery lacks the grand monuments to be found in Kensal Green or Highgate.

By the turn of the century the cemetery was nearly full.  Maintenance of the cemetery grounds ceased during World War II and shortly thereafter the cemetery company was declared bankrupt.  In the 1970s the cemetery was taken over by the London Borough of Hackney Council.

Notable burials include General William Booth, Catherine Booth and Bramwell Booth leaders of the Salvation Army.

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Brompton Cemetery

This cemetery was formed by the West of London and Westminster Cemetery Company in 1840 and covers some 39 acres. The land was flat and originally a clay pit and brick works.  On this land, a gateway in the form of a triumphal arch, like Kensal Green, was erected.  This gateway led to a long straight, tree-lined avenue which terminated in a circular colonnade at the centre of which was a domed Anglican chapel.  Beneath the colonnades, catacombs were constructed guarded by iron doors decorated with various symbols of death.

The construction costs were so great that the cemetery company eventually suffered financial ruin.  The planned Roman Catholic and non-conformist chapels were never built.  Meanwhile, Parliament was debating whether it was fit and proper for commercial companies to be running cemeteries.  Eventually the Government took over the management of the cemetery from the private company.

From about this period, private companies were no longer involved in the construction of cemeteries.  It was considered that the burial of the dead was not an appropriate matter for speculative companies.  Instead, the management of cemeteries was left to public authorities.

Notable burials in Brompton include Sir Henry Cole (director of the Victoria and Albert Museum), Sir Samuel Cunard (ship owner), Emmeline Pankhurst (suffragette) and John Wisden of Wisden’s Cricket Almanac.