Abney Park Cemetery

                          Abney Park Cemetery
 

AbneyPark Cemetery is situated in the London borough of Hackney in a place called Stoke Newington and was opened in 1840. The cemetery was originally designed and set out by Lady Mary Abney, Dr. Isaac Watts and the Hartopp family. The cemetery was laid out on 32 acres of land. Near to the center of the park is a single brick chapel that was built, very near to where the old Abney House once stood. Abneyhouse was built in 1700 and was the home of Sir Thomas Abney (1640-1722). The chapel was unconsecrated, so that it would be open to all denominations of any religion. This is why it was decided to only built one chapel instead of the normal two chapels. Abney Park was the first non-denominational cemetery in Europe and became the favorite place to be buried by nonconformists of all persuasions from all over London.

Abney Park cemetery was the the first time that an educational arboretum and a cemetery had been combined. The landscape had been laid out with this in mind and had over 2,500 different trees, shrubs and 1,029 different varieties of rose bushes all growing in very fertile ground. The man who was responsible for planting and labeling all of these plants was Mr George Loddiges a local Hackney nurseryman. Mr Loddiges thought that the park was such a great idea that he later on brought shares in the company. George worked closely with Mr GeorgeCollison the company secretary who was the key force behind the radical cemetery. Mr Collison had took the idea from a visit he made to a cemetery in the new world, America. He visited a place called Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts and was inspired by what he found there. He then thought that it would be a great idea to bring the concept back to England. The pair work very closely together with the architect William Hosking who had designed the chapel and all the drainage on the park. Together these three people were responsible for creating a very impressively garden cemetery of it's time. Unfortunately Loddiges nursery had to close in the late 1850's and the maintenance of the cemetery and its botanical labeling were impaired.

Abney Park is one of the Magnificent Seven garden cemeteries that were built around London in the mid 1800's. These cemeteries were entirely different to all the other cemeteries that had been before. The garden cemeteries were designed to be a place of beauty and peace, a pleasant place to remember your love one's. When you walk around these cemeteries you can not help but get a sense of what the Victorians were about. Abney park is no exception. As you walk up to the cemetery entrance, with it's Egyptian style pillars and gates. It gives you the feeling that there's something grand about this place. The Egyptian Revival style was very popular with the Victorians at this time. The entrance was designed by William Hosking and is the only complete “Egyptian Revival” entrance way to a cemetery anywhere in the world.

In the early 1880's a Commercial General Company was formed who had brought the cemetery on the open market. A new enterprise was formed even though the park had not been formalized through an act of parliament for use as a burial ground. The park went through some changes after this company had brought the cemetery. The park was then standardized to a park-like landscaping replacing most of the unique arboretum planting. Over the years air pollution took its toll on the plant life especially of the conifers in the park. The Commercial General Company look after Abney Park until it went into receivership in the 1970's. A few years later Hackney council took over the whole of the cemetery in 1978 except for one forecourt building. Then Abney Park became subject to the Local AuthoritiesCemeteries Order of 1977. Over the next twenty one years the cemetery was left to its own devices and only a few burials took place at the councils discretion to people who held deeds to the graves and land pots on the park from the previous company. During this time the local people formed the The Abney Park Trust in 1991. The trust turned the park into a woodland memorial park and Local Nature Reserve with educational facilities. This was all done with the blessing of the local council. At the same time has the trust was formed another group was set up. This group was called Friends of Abney Park and was formed to help provide volunteers and to help raise funds for the park. The group merged with the trust in 2002. In 2009 Abney Park became scheduled to be one of Britain’s historic park and gardens at risk from decay and neglect.

Abney park is a great place to visit and take a scroll along the winding paths and see monuments popping out for the dense under growth. I myself found that the park is a wonderful place to visit. There are plenty of different paths to walk along. The chapel its self is quiet a stunning gothic building to walk around and to look at, even though its in ruins. I would recommend that you should take a visit.