Cemeteries – Cemetery Club

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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Six Olympians From the Past

Despite the setbacks of happening in the middle of a global pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics of 2021 has already seen an impressive haul of medals for Team GB: as of current time of writing we have thirteen golds, sixteen silvers and thirteen bronze medals, placing as sixth overall out of two hundred and six nations.…
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The Man Who Taught the World How to Remember

On the 8th May 1919 an idea was suggested which shaped how we remember the First World War. I was on a deep-dive on the British Pathé website the other day (using the search term ‘cemeteries‘) and I came across this short clip that detailed a historic man’s grave: produced clearly with the intention of…
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The Astral Cemetery

Look Up. With the launching of the latest set of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites from California last night (that had everyone from myself to BBC Newsreader Sophie Raworth looking to the sky for a glimpse of a project that aims to bring internet coverage to every corner of the planet), I fired up an astronomy…
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The Afterlives of the Rich & Famous

A young American’s journey to visit the graves of every U.S. president, vice president, and other notables “Just tweeted this, because it’s ruddy brilliant!” That’s what Sheldon commented on my February 16th Instagram post, which showcased the final resting place of Richard McDonald, co-founder of the McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain. Dick’s urn, nestled in…
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Killed By A Coffin

It’s an image that does the rounds on social media from time to time. I’m not the first to share it and it’s one of the initial images I found when I began my immersion into cemetery history. Kensal Green was the second cemetery I visited for this blog and its not an event you’d…
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This Is Halloween

Ooooh GAWD it’s my Christmas! This week sees all manner of deathly symbols and imagery invade supermarkets, schools and offices. Whilst like any other festival, its commercialisation does seem to have detracted from its origin as Samhain, a time indicating the start of the darker part of the year and the time where the veil…
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Back 2 Skool

Life update time. On this blog (and its subsequent social media presence) I always endeavour to do justice to the deceased that I find so interesting. To share their life stories in a respectful, entertaining way and to make cemeteries less threatening as spaces of learning and wonder. The blog turned six years old in…
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One of the most Impudent, Heartless Business Scoundrels On Record

‘The octopus is soft – soft and flabby. Its form when not in action has nothing terrible about it, it is a greyish mass, not especially distinguishable from other organisms. The octopus is crafty. When its victim is unsuspicious, it opens suddenly and holds him in its grasp…he draws you to him and into himself.…
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The Cedar’s Farewell

Today we mourn an icon. Trees hold a very special place in our hearts and you only have to look at how important the Bethnal Green Mulberry is and its value to the local community to see what imagery and emotion they conjure. Permission was given to remove this historic tree from its current site (being…
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The Lost Village of the East End

Hard to imagine this part of the East End being a queer sanctuary and a once idyllic rural retreat… I recently gave a walking tour around old Bromley-By-Bow on behalf of my good friends at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and the Women’s Environmentalist Network. It’s an area I’m vaguely familiar with, as my old local…
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Bones in a Library

…after being found under a driveway. In 2014, Alison Carpenter just wanted her driveway finished. A new home came with the associated building work you’d expect as she and her partner wanted to make their home their home. It took longer than expected and cost more than was anticipated; so it was decided to finish…
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My Top 9 Instagram Posts 2018

Take a look at my most-liked photos on #Instagram – fairytale mausoleums, Roman Dead and 19th century visionaries!
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A Jaunt to the London Necropolis

‘So. Sheldon. The Monuments and Mausolea Trust are having their AGM at Brookwood Cemetery. You want in?’ How could I, intrepid cemetery enthusiast and curator of Cemetery Club, say no? Brookwood is one of those cemeteries I’ve long been meaning to visit. Mike Fox of the Monuments and Mausoleums Trust in Waterloo kindly invited me to…
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A Bird’s Eye View

Things look better from the air. Have a look on YouTube and you’ll find some awesome camera work of beautiful sweeping vistas of cityscapes and well known places seen from a birds point of view. The concept of aerial photography in this way isn’t new. It was used extensively in the Second World War by…
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