On LineYou Can Email
at Waiting for the ghost bus Page
by Page
|
|
. | ||||
Abney Park Cemetery, established in 1840, was from the outset designed to continue the distinctively Stoke Newington tradition of non-conformity and a healthy disrespect for the established authority. Laid out on the grounds of the Abney and Fleetwood estates (the railings on the Church Street entrance were the main gates for Abney House), the thirty-one acre cemetery was, like its contemporaries at Kensal Green and Norwood, an enlightened Victorian attempt to move on from the overcrowded churchyards which were then prevalent. However, unlike the other London cemeteries, Abney Park was unconsecrated and non-denominational, reflecting an area populated by Jewish and Huguenot refugees, anti-slavery and religious tolerance campaigners, and Dissenters, Chartists, Quakers and political mavericks of all descriptions. William Hosking, Professor of Architecture at King’s College, London, was responsible for the building and landscaping, and he created not simply a burial ground but also a public botanical garden and nature reserve, designed to offer peaceful, leisurely surroundings to the local inhabitants. An arboretum was laid out by the famous horticultural nursery of Loddiges of Hackney, which at the time was the largest arboretum in Europe. George Loddiges planted and tended 2500 different varieties of shrubs, over 1000 varieties of rose bushes and grew a wide range of trees, including American oak and tulip trees. Variety was also present in the graves, tombs and occupations of the deceased. The earlier, modest tombstones of the sober-minded dissenters were soon outnumbered by the grandiose, ornate constructions of the later Victorians, and the brooding, now ruined Gothic chapel at the centre of the cemetery overlooks a fascinating, if melancholic, jumble of religiosity, piety and hope for the life eternal. A life-size statue of Dr Isaac Watts (author of ‘0 God, our help in ages past’ and who is himself buried in Bunhill Fields) keeps a watchful eye on the inhabitants, who include Salvation Army founder William Booth and his son Bramwell, leading Chartist James Bronterre O’Brian, PC William Tyler (murdered in Tottenham in 1909) and Frank Bostock (local zoo keeper, whose tomb is guarded by a sleeping lion). The cemetery quickly became popular, and within fifteen years of its opening the ground was described as ‘a mass of corruption underneath’. By the beginning of the 20th century over 100,000 people had been buried within its walls, and the practice of infilling - building new plots between existing graves - was beginning to squeeze an already cramped cemetery. In 1896 an observer noted, ‘The tombstones are crowded together as closely knit as seems possible and yet they are constantly being added to’. The Abney Park Cemetery Company was running out of money, vandalism was becoming rife and, by the mid-20th century, maintenance was virtually non-existent. The once magnificent botanical garden had turned into an unkempt, dangerous urban jungle. When the Company finally went bust in 1974, however, the Save Abney Park Cemetery Association persuaded the London Borough of Hackney to buy the space for £1. The years of neglect and decay were finally tackled, and the Abney Park Cemetery Trust was given a 21-year lease in 1992. The site was officially declared Hackney’s first local Nature Reserve in 1993, and improvements continue to be made to this unique ecological habitat. If you want to be buried in the cemetery, well you’re too late. The last plot was sold off in the 1970s, although family plots still exist. But if you want to help in the restoration of a hugely important local asset, contact the Trust on 0207 7275 7557. They also organise various walks and talks, and there is an Abney Park Weekend in the next Festival, from 22nd to 24th June. Dissenters are more than welcome. |
||||||
|
|
||||||
