The Sadness And Wonder Of West Norwood Cemetery

Another week, another visit to one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ (the seven large cemeteries established during the Victoria era to tackle the problems experiencing by inner London parishes which struggled to find places to bury their dead). This time it was West Norwood, which sits south of Herne Hill and east of Streatham.

The West Norwood Cemetery was opened in 1837 and has an amazing 65 grade II listed monuments and buildings within it. Just to touch on a few, as you enter you’ll almost immediately come across the remarkable mausoleum of Dr Edmund Maddick, a surgeon in the Royal Navy and a great supporter of early cinema – one wonders whether the extravagant design of early picture houses influenced this outrageous tribute to him…

Elsewhere is the grave of Sir Hiram Maxim – he was the inventor of the much-appreciated humble mouse trap but unfortunately also of the Maxim gun – the world’s first automatic machine gun which proved effective in slaughtering wave upon wave of very lightly armed enemies when it was first deployed  against native tribes in Africa in the 1890s.

Rather more sweet are the monuments to some of our culinary heroes – Mrs Beeton, the quintessential Victorian cook, Mr Tate (of sugar fame) and the younger Mr Doulton, whose company’s plates continue to grace dinner tables today, are all buried here. One of the grandest monuments belongs to someone who today would be a hate figure for some – a successful banker. Resembling an ornate church spire, around the base of J.W.Gilbart’s tomb you’ll find panels which set out his achievements during the many years he spent as general manager of one of London’s biggest banks. West Norwood Cemetery even caters to those with an interest in sport and transport – C.W.Alcock, the inventor of modern cricket is interred in the cemetery, and so is the engineer James Greathead – all large boring machines that dig tunnels today are still based on the principles which he first used in his ‘Greathead Shield’.

I’ll leave you with one note of caution regarding the West Norwood Cemetery – although new interments are rare, the crematorium is still in constant use and funeral corteges are therefore commonplace. If you find the sight of mourners particularly troubling then I would probably suggest the leafy surrounds of Abney Park or the gentle abandonment of Tower Hamlets instead…

The cemetery has it’s own official website here, and also has a group of ‘Friends’ who help out with the upkeep and maintenance – you can find them online here.