Nunhead Cemetery

There was supposed to be special tours of the cemetery at 2.00 p.m. and 3.00 p.m.; however, when I got there for the 3 o'clock tour, no-one seemed to know anything about them, although there was special opening of the ruined chapel and crypt, with guides to show everyone around.   This included a visit to the top of the tower; I had the required hard hat on when I discovered that the stairs were extremely narrow (the larger guide couldn't go up because he was too large) and there were no handrails.   So the hard hat quickly came off, and was passed to someone else - no way was I going up a tiny, dark staircase, even if the view from the top was superb.

So I went on the tour of the crypt instead, stepping over puddles and muddy ground to get there.   The crypt was supposed to be used from burials, but was incredibly expensive, so few took up the option.

The cemetery itself opened in the 1840s, and is one of the seven Victorian cemeteries in London.   At first it was very profitable, but as space for new burials ran out, profits declined until it was no longer economic for the company to maintain it.   After years of neglect, it is today owned by Southwark Council, and is being restored as a leisure resource for the borough.   There are paths everywhere, with trees, shrubs, undergrowth, wildlife and interesting monuments, including one I had never heard of before, a memorial to the Scottish martyrs of 1793.

I popped into the little office on my way out, and discovered that the tours had been cancelled because of the muddiness and slipperiness of the paths - having walked along several of them, which were often on a slope, I could understand their concerns.