Category: Animals
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Bones Beneath a Bishop’s Palace
A Victorian dog and his master A pleasant fifteen minute amble from Parsons Green station, Fulham Palace and its gardens is managed by a charitable trust. In continual possession of the Church of England since AD 704 (when Bishop Waldhere acquired the Manor of Fulham) it is a scheduled ancient monument – which gives it…
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The Lions of London, Part 1
A marker to the dead can take many forms. A simple slab. A towering obelisk. A niche in a wall. Or as a ruddy great lion. Lions in cemeteries – not actual lions, although wouldn’t that be something – exist in funerary sculpture and are almost as impressive as seeing the real thing. There are…
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The Peregrine of St. Pauls
The Museum of London has a fabulous Peregrine Falcon. It is however, dead. I saw this bird of prey when I visited the Beasts of London exhibition in 2019 and there was something terribly sad about seeing a creature, although long deceased, stuffed, mounted and displayed in a way that does not reflect the nature…
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A True Companion
Have you seen the little grave of Carlton Terrace? Carlton Terrace is the site of a long-demolished home of George IV – it was his playboy mansion before he decided to settle for the much larger Buckingham Place (then House), as it was far better suited for his lavish parties. When it was demolished, the…
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HRH (His Rolling Hulk)
Many people who lie in our cemeteries would have known, even visited, one of London’s best known animals. When I was about 7 or 8 I visited London Zoo for the first time. This was back when elephants and rhinos were still being kept in central London, which, considering it was the mid-1990’s, is bewildering.…
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Do Animals Mourn Us?
Right, dear reader, prepare yourself for a beast of a post (pun most certainly intended). For some people, losing a pet can be as devastating as losing a human member of the family. Londoners lacking gardens could lay their beloved animals to rest in Hyde Park’s pet cemetery or Ilford Animal Cemetery. In the gardens of Marlborough House…
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Top 5 Blog Posts of 2016
This year we’ve been traipsing amongst the stones finding some of the hidden lives and wonders you’ll find in a Cemetery and other spaces. If you missed them, here are our top 5 posts from 2016! 1. Exploring Hyde Park’s Hidden Pet Cemetery Did you know that Hyde Park has a little Cemetery, solely inhabited by…
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The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Celebrating the lives of long gone Londoners – that’s what we’re about. Here’s someone we cover on our tours around Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park – an extraordinary man and an extraordinary animal. Imagine, being nine years old, amidst the grubby streets of London, looking into the piercing eyes of a beast more at home in…
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Exploring Hyde Park’s Hidden Pet Cemetery
by Caroline If you peek through the railings near one of Hyde Park’s entrance lodges, you’ll see something quite unexpected – a little cemetery in the lodge’s back garden. The space is filled with rows of tiny gravestones. This is one of Hyde Park’s little-known secrets – a pet cemetery dating from the late Victorian…
Cemetery Club 