Tag: Death
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Lady in Red
The history of a garment links three women, a 19th century painter and some beautiful places of rest Be it his Ophelia or Bubbles, the work of Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) dominates the nineteenth century. An evocative artist whose latter work to soap in the nineteenth century is just important as the image of…
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Mary Nichols and the Sleeping Angel
Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful graves in Europe, it is said that the grave Mary Nichols lay completely hidden under ivy of Highgate Cemetery until the 1980’s, when it was rediscovered by photographer John Gay. On the top of the grave lies a sleeping angel on a bed of clouds: it is easily one of…
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Stumbling Stones
My foot scuffed something. I was walking down the Kloveniersburgwal in Amsterdam in 2018 when something slightly tripped me over. I looked down and saw something shiny embedded into the pavement. There were small plaques, which stood slightly proud from the brickwork. They resembled brass beer coasters, so I knelt down for a closer look.…
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Vesty
I’m in a cemetery today. I don’t want to be. Anyone who knows me will know one of my favourite jokes, considering my passion for cemeteries as museums of people, is to ‘threaten’ people with a blog post. “I’ll be writing about you one day!” I say, tongue in cheek. Earlier this month, it finally…
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A Day in the Death of A Cockney Cemetery
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is one of my favourite cemeteries to research and explore. It doesn’t have the sepulchral magnificence of West Norwood, neither the romantic decay of Highgate, but out of the so-called Magnificent Seven of London, its the lower classes who are predominantly buried here and its their stories that I find more…
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Help Restore The Burdick Grave
Right; roll up sleeves time, people. An accident befell my friends at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park not too long ago; a ruddy great tree decided it was time to collapse and in the process it took out a monument that is now in pieces on the floor. Tower Hamlets doesn’t have the most spectacular tombs…
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The Death Pyramid of Toxteth
A revolution in death is being built in Liverpool. Cremation; the nation’s preferred method of disposal when it comes to dealing with the dead. You can be scattered at sea, kept on a mantlepiece or, as a friend told me about his own friend’s late mother, discreetly sprinkled on the carpets of several well known landmarks…
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The Roman Dead
It all began in Southwark. The remarkable discovery of a stone sarcophagus in Lant Street, Southwark last year spurred the Museum of London to collate forty years of work into one exhibition. How did Roman London commemorate death and what can we learn from what they’ve left behind? Exhibition curators Jackie Kiely, Rebecca Redfern and…
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A Visit to Agatha Christie’s Grave
Agatha Christie, the world’s best selling author, was born on 15th September 1890 in Torquay. She is know as the Queen of Crime for her detective fiction stories and her two most famous detectives are Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She is also the only female playwright to have had three productions in London’s West End…
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Rubbing Shoulders With The Living: A Great Day Out At Nunhead Open Day
By Christina I have a leaflet in front of me about The Friends of Nunhead Cemetery. They gave it to me when I visited their stall at Nunhead Open Day on Saturday. It costs £2 a year to join and I’m going to sign up right after I write this post. The leaflet says ‘Nunhead…
Cemetery Club 