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.

Old Southgate Cemetery

Old Southgate Cemetery

Opened 1880

New Southgate Cemetery

 New Southgate cemetery

Opened 1861

After the closure of the burial grounds in London in the 1850’s it was decided to establish new cemeteries further out from the center of London. The cemeteries Act of 1847 allow the creation of new cemeteries and plans were fast track through parliament to help with the overcrowding in the inner city. The New Southgate cemetery was built because of this act and the location was chosen because of its easy access to the railway line.

The Colney Hatch Company acquired a piece of land that was only one mile from Colney Hatch station now renamed New Southgate station. The station is only seven miles away from central London being on the Great Northern Railway's main line. Leaving Kings Cross station the journey only took 15 minutes to reach the new cemetery. This was an ideal location for the the newly formed company which was help by the act of Parliament.

The Great Northern London Cemetery Company was formed as a joint venture between The Great Northern Railway Company and the Colney Hatch Company in 1859 with the intention of providing a cheap and convenient burial service to Londoner's. A new siding with a separate station was built just north of Kings Cross Station situated next to Maiden Lane now York way. The station included a steeple and Gothic arches built above a retaining wall near the railway line. It also had a morgue which was intended to stop Londoner's keeping the deceased at home which was very unhygienic. The coffin's would be lowered by a mechanical device to the track below then brought to a particular spot for its reception. On the day of the funeral instead of the a long drawn out lugubrious street procession the funeral party would be conveyed by train to the cemetery. At Colney Hatch there was a similar specially built siding adjacent to the cemetery. This service was available from 1861 and for a short time special funeral trains would run, about twice a week from Kings Cross to Colney Hatch stations. The service only lasted for about a decade, the exact date that the service ceased is unknown but it was between 1867 and 1873.

The company aimed at the lower end of the market charging six shillings to carry the coffin to the cemetery and 10 to 11 shillings for the burial plus 1s 6d for the return fare for each mourner it work out to be a much cheap option than other services offered at the time. Why did the the service end? I think it was due to the fact that people found that it was to far for them to visit their loves. This would have been fine for some people but not for others. As a poor person you would not have enough money to travel up to New Southgate every week or every month to visit you love ones. At the time people people would have been glad that their love ones were getting a good burial and in they're grief not thinking of the long term visiting or the cost that it would entail. This is why I think the service gradually became unfashionable and eventually ended in the years I mention earlier.

Victorian Angels

Brompton Cemetery

Victorian stone carvings of angels in Brompton Cemetery

west London and other grave stones.

History

I Pray For You

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Brompton Cemetery with my DSLR camera. I shot a lot of images of the very nice stone carvings of angels there. I decided to enhance these pictures to bring out the beauty of the angels. Some of these stone statues have been there since the cemetery opened in 1846. I thought that the red and yellows would bring out the grainy texture that the angels and other gravestones have there. They have a very holy feel to them and are quite spiritual in appearance. Most of the angels are looking up to god or looking down at the love one they have lost.

The place is full of history the cemetery was one of seven large cemeteries and was founded by private companies in 1840. These cemeteries were called The Magnificent Seven. It was set up to cope with the over spill of the inner city burial grounds that were unable to cope with the rising number of deaths. The cemetery was designed by Benjamin Baud and set out in the style of St Peter's in Rome. The cemetery is rectangular in shape and is around 160,000m2 in size. It is design in such away that it gives the feel of an open-air cathedral. The centrepiece of the cemetery is the big domed chapel that is flanked by a number of catacombs. The catacombs were build to offer a cheaper alternative to being buried and having a burial plot. This idea did not take off and only 500 places were sold out of the thousands that were on offer.





Victorian Burial Customs

The Funeral




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Please Father

The Victorian funeral was a very elaborate affair with the coffins being intricately carved and gilded. Sometimes the horses that pull the hearse were dyed jet black and was fitted with black strapping and have sliver mouthpieces. The Victorians also used to ostrich feather plumes to adorned the hearse and horses. There would have professional mourners called mutes to walk in the funeral procession and to look melancholy. There would be pallbearers who carried batons, feather men and pages all dressed in gowns. These processions would start off at a walking pace and even taking a detour to incorporate important places so that there could maximum the display of mourning.  After a certain time everyone on foot would jump onto the coaches and the walk turned into a brisk trot. At the cemetery gates the procession would return to a walking pace once more. The service would take place and then the coffin would be lowered through the floor to the catacombs, or there would be a small ceremony by the graveside. Women were not aloud to attend this part of the funeral.

After the funeral a feast was held at the home of the deceased. This would be for all the family and distant relatives as well. Victorians would also send out cards to all the deceased friends, business friend and other acquaintances. The cards were supplied by the undertaker and were printed in black and sliver. The cards were embossed with symbols of grief. The cards were intended to remind people of the deceased so that they could pray for them. These cards were called mourning cards and contained all the information of the funeral day and times.             

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Door Way To ?

Flecher's Place

Mourning

The Victorians had very strict social codes to follow when it came death. In the early 1800's death was apart of every day life. The average time that a person was expected to live was only 42. The modern Victorians were expected to follow the rules on death and mourning or face scandal and ostracism from society. When someone died within the house the clocks would be stop at the time of death, mirrors would be covered so that the spirit could not get caught up within the frame of the mirror glass and the curtains would be drawn. The body had to be watched over at all times until the burial took place.

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I MissYou

Then a period of mourning would begin first with deep mourning this would last for a year and a day. Within this year women would only wear somber coloured clothes and the man would wear black armbands, hatbands and black gloves. There would be no social engagements. Some rich households would fit out all the servants in mourning clothes. The mourning customs were very complex and many women at to consult guidelines to make sure they were carrying out the process the right way.



Headstones Symbolism

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Child Angel

The Victorians were a very religious and spiritual people, they were expected to spend as much as they could afford to build a monument for their dear beloved. The Victorian graves were a much more elaborate affair just like the funeral. The monuments would be appropriate to the deceased and the family’s social status. The monuments were symbolic or religious with various statues like Angels, different types of Crosses, broken columns and wreaths. These were the main symbols of the era and what people of these days may not realize is that each symbol had its own meaning. If you walk through these old cemeteries you will notice that the Victorians tombs and statues are very elaborate. What I noticed when I was walking around Brompton cemetery was the large amount of angels on top of the tombs in all different types of posses. I wondered at the time if these had a meaning. When I came home I did some researched in to this idea and found that they did.

Angels generally mean a messenger between God and Man. This would depend on the pose that the angel was in. If the angel had a trumpet in their hands it would symbolize that the deceased was praying for or calling for resurrection rebirth. If the angel was in a somber pose like weeping this meant grief, or simply that the persons dead departed is being missed very deeply. An angel with its wings partially open or in a flying pose would mean rebirth or a guardian being with you at all times. Angels are an agent of god and more often the angel would be in pose were they would be pointing to the sky or heaven. This would symbolize spirituality with the angel guarding the dead. 

I Will Wait For You

The Victorians used other types of symbols like a broken column symbolizing that a life had been cut short. Wreaths symbolized victory in death and Christian eternity. The urn was a classic symbol simply meaning mortality of the soul and the cross with a circle around the cross piece would mean eternity. The Victorians were very much like the Egyptians with they tombs and Highgate cemetery is a good example of this with its Egyptians tomb like structures taken from Egypt architecture. A pyramid shaped tomb would symbolize eternity life and was thought to stop or prevent the devil reclining on the grave.

The modern funeral is not a very grand affair any more not like the Victorians one's were and it's a shame that people do not erect monuments for our dead any more. Yes we respect our dead but we do not build some kind of monument that will stand up for years and years so that people in the future could be remember that person. We just lay them to rest and place a modest type of headstone on the grave or a plaque. Maybe its money or just gone out of fashion who knows.


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Twined in Time



Little Angel

Heart of God