A Factfile for a Taphophile: Grizzly Victorian Fun Facts Part 1

by Christina I learned a new word this week. My friend Patrick taught it to me. Taphophile means ‘someone who is interested in gravestones, funerals, epitaphs and cemeteries’ and I think that describes us here at Cemetery Club quite well. Sheldon doesn’t really like the term, preferring ‘Cemetery Enthusiast’ but I’m enjoying using the new […]

Westminster Meets Kensal Green – My First Tourguiding Experience

by Christina It is a Saturday morning at the end of June, it is about a million degrees, and Kensal Green Cemetery looks green and alive. I am standing in front of the gravestone of Dickensian author Wilkie Collins, trying to make 10 people I only met an hour ago (and Sheldon) believe it is […]

The Crystal Palace

By Christina On the night of 30th November 1936, thousands of people gathered around Upper Norwood in south London to watch an iron and plate glass building known as The Crystal Palace burn to the ground. Many came because they had seen a strange orange glow in the sky, and they brought their families and […]

‘The Disease is Undoubtedly in London and Undoubtedly it Will Spread’…

by Christina When walking around a cemetery, looking at the gravestones, one of the first things you might notice is the age at which the person commemorated on the stone died. You come by this information either because the age at which they died is written on the gravestone or by way of some simple […]

West Norwood Cemetery – The Fluff Report

by Christina I was excited about visiting West Norwood Cemetery. It was the spring, so the weather was likely to be warm and there would be no puddles to ruin my shoes. It was in South London which is my neck of the woods, and I always feel protective over my own neck of the […]

The Mystery of Montague Fowler, Part Three

Long-term readers of the blog will be familiar with a feature that chronicles my obsession with a historical man. For those of you who may be alien to our quest, I would recommend reading parts one and two to get a clearer idea of Ben and I’s fascination with a chap called Sir Montague Fowler, […]

The Lost Boys

by Sheldon One of my passions as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, is singing. I’ve been singing in a choir for two years now, which is a feat in itself, as after my voice broke at the age of fourteen I thought I’d never be able to sing again. In my boyhood I spent […]

Peering Into The Past

Sheldon likes to peer into Mausoleums on our Cemetery Club visits. There isn’t always much to see but I have grown fond of watching him – a modern day Victorian – peer into the past this way, and into the hidden nooks and crevices that these Magnificent Seven cemeteries have to offer. Photographs by Christina […]

The Mystery of Montague Fowler, Part Two

For those of you who are new to the blog, a few weeks back I wrote of my discovery of an artefact belonging to a boy called Montague Fowler in a long forgotten chest in the old stables of a country mansion. The whole thing intrigued me. Here in my hands was this beautifully written piece […]

The Mystery of Montague Fowler

Monday means it’s my time to write a post, and as I’ve been christened ‘history buff and modern day Tony Robinson’ by Christina (I hope she allows my embellishment of the role she bestowed upon me in the previous post), I thought it’d be interesting to occasionally venture off-topic and write about a little bit of detective […]