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Nunhead Cemetery

8 images Created 17 May 2009

Nunhead's occupants were some of Victorian society's hoi-palloi: Chemist, Frederick Augustus Abel, inventor of cordite is there. So is the writer Hilda Caroline Gregg (1933) whose pseudonym Sydney Carolyn Grier wrote the first of 23 novels at the age of 13); Bryan Donkin (1855) inventor of the air-tight tin can; teenage chanteur Jenny Hill (1896) whose sweet voice delighted music hall crowds; horsepower magnate Thomas Tilling (1893) owning a stable of 4,000 horses and Alfred Peek Stevens (1888) who penned the earliest known use in England of the term O.K. ("Walking in the zoo is the O.K. thing to do.").

In the first 50 years of the 19th century the population of London more than doubled from 1 to 2.3 million. The city's dead were being stacked in overcrowded parish churchyards, leading to decaying matter entering the water supply leading to a series of cholera epidemics. All Saints Nunhead was consecrated in 1840 and was one of the seven great Victorian cemeteries established in a picturesque ring around the outskirts of London known as the Magnificent Seven.

Queen Victoria's 40-year obsession with grief taught a superstitious nation how to mourn, inventing a whole industry of hearses, mausolea, rings, lockets and silk gloves bought for the undertakers to wear. If there was a corpse in the house, mirrors were covered and the deceased was taken out feet first to stop the head looking backwards for others to follow ..

A blog story about the trip to Nunhead is at:
http://wp.me/p3fbj-59

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  • Two young girls play around the grand Victorian memorial grave stones in Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of society from the industrial age. During this annual open day, it is an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery09-16-05-2009.jpg
  • Overgrown Victorian headstone, almost covered in undergrowth in Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of society from the industrial age. During this annual open day, it is an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery13-16-05-2009.jpg
  • Visitors browse through a book stall beneath tombs and memorials in Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of Victorian society from the industrial age. During this annual open day, it is an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery02-16-05-2009.jpg
  • A genealogy society has a stall next to tombs and memorials in Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of Victorian society from the industrial age. Family history groups are also present to advertise their products during this annual open day, an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery04-16-05-2009.jpg
  • A genealogy society has a stall next to tombs and memorials in Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of Victorian society from the industrial age. Family history groups are also present to advertise their products during this annual open day, an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery05-16-05-2009.jpg
  • A genealogy society has a stall next to tombs and memorials in Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of Victorian society from the industrial age. Family history groups are also present to advertise their products during this annual open day, an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery06-16-05-2009.jpg
  • Visitors stand in woodland to listen to a speaker give a talk during a tour of Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of Victorian society from the industrial age. During this annual open day, it is an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery10-16-05-2009.jpg
  • Next to a freshly-dug grave covered with traffic bollards is a recent plot for a boy n Nunhead Cemetery whose deceased occupants were important members of Victorian society from the industrial age. During this annual open day, it is an opportunity for the Friends of the cemetery to celebrate and educate Londoners, old and young - thereby helping to preserve and conserve this historic site.
    nunhead_cemetery17-16-05-2009.jpg
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