Motley Talk about Brompton Cemetery
Who are the magnificent seven and what do the symbols on memorial stones tell us?
Dear friends, during the 19th Century, due to the industrial revolution in the UK, people flocked to the cities, especially London, which became the biggest city in the world. Its population grew from 1 million in 1800 to 2.3 million by 1850 (and 5 million by 1900). Of course, the city expanded but the poor had no money for expensive housing, so they had to live in the already overcrowded, filthy slum districts, where there was high unemployment, hardship and disease.
For the Victorians death was ever present, even for the rich. For every 200 women who gave birth one woman died, and since women gave birth to ten children or more, the chances of eventually dying in childbirth were pretty high. 4% of all births were stillborn, and about a third of the children born in 1840 died before the age of five. Tuberculosis and other infectious diseases were rampant, and cholera (due to dirty water) was endemic until 1866. Malnutrition, drug & alcohol addiction, accidents, murder and suicide took their toll, especially in the slums. In 1850 life expectancy was 40 for men and 42 for women (it had improved by the end of the century).
As London grew it absorbed many small parishes, with their churchyards where Londoners were buried. But the churchyards filled up and the situation became so dire that in 1832 the government gave permission for seven private cemeteries1 to be built on the outskirts of London (now within London of course). They are known as the Magnificent Seven Garden Cemeteries: Abney Park, Highgate, Kensal Green, Nunhead, Tower Hamlets, West Norwood and Brompton.
My daughter and I visited Brompton Cemetery on a chilly spring day, when the sky was overcast and the trees still bare, possibly not the best time to visit (I have visited in the summer and it is lovely). On the other hand, the starkness allowed us to see the graves more easily. Having been built in the countryside, on a market garden site, the cemetery is now an oasis surrounded by busy, noisy London. It continues its intended role as a garden resting place for the dead, and a garden solace for the living.
The layout of Brompton Cemetery is based on the design of a cathedral, with the Central Avenue leading to the Great Circle and the Chapel, in place of the altar.
As one may expect, the Victorians extended their rigid rules about one’s station in life into the cemetery. Plots on the east side were designated as private graves, sold ‘in perpetuity’ with heritable deeds. This encouraged wealthy families to build grand monuments and mausoleums, as enduring symbols of their status. The burials on the west side were much cheaper including common burials (about six to a grave), that were not marked with a headstone. The occupants of these graves are now being reburied and the plots made available for new burials2. But your days resting in your grave are numbered, as you can only buy a 75-year lease. A family grave for three people for 75 years, next to a path, costs £37,292 in 2022 (not including the burial or memorial stone).
Which reminds me of one of the very few jokes that I can remember. At the funeral a close friend asked the widow if her husband had left enough money for the funeral, since he was known to be a miser. “Yes” said the widow, “and he left £40,000 for the memorial stone”. The friend looked shocked at such an expensive memorial stone. Then the widow waved her hand with a huge diamond ring on it. “Do you like it?” she said.
Brompton Cemetery has no restrictions on faith (or lack of) and the 200,000 people buried in the 35,000 graves are of many religions. There are also the catacombs but they were never popular, being dark and spooky, and they are now locked.
Burial of people who killed themselves was not allowed in consecrated church grounds, but was permitted in Brompton Cemetery. In 1898 Frederick James Blake, a 55-year-old widowed, unemployed solicitor, despairing of his future, shot and killed himself in the cemetery, “to cause less trouble”. In a letter to his brother he wrote: “I have got a berth at last, and my future address will be No. 146,454 grave, Brompton Cemetery [where his wife was buried]. Fred's dead; what more to be said”.
This beautiful pink granite obelisk was raised for Jugoi Nagayori Asano who in 1886 shot and killed himself in his lodgings. He was 21. Asano was from a noble family in Japan and had come to London to study law, leaving everyone he knew and a young wife behind. It is sad to imagine how lost and depressed he must have been, in a strange land. The Victorians were very fond of Egyptian designs, especially relating to death, and you can see many examples in the cemetery. An obelisk obviously has an Egyptian influence, but it was also thought that the shape would prevent the devil from sitting on your grave.
Hannah Courtoy was the mistress (not married) to John Courtoy, who left her his considerable fortune. Though the will was disputed in court, she still got the money. Before Hannah died (in 1849 aged 65) she had this Egyptian-inspired mausoleum built for her and two of her daughters, in a very prominent position on the east side.
The key to the mausoleum has been missing for over 100 years, and there is a rumour that inside the mausoleum there is a time machine (perhaps because it looks like the TARDIS in Doctor Who)!
Victorian memorials or gravestones tell a story beyond the words carved on the stone. This memorial for Eda Darley who died aged 17 in 1905, shows a small angel, who will eternally mourn for her, sitting on a rock, a Christian symbol of faith (“He is my rock” Psalm 92:15).
A broken column means a person who was cut down in the prime of life. Henry Pettitt died of typhoid in 1893 aged 45. He was a very successful British actor and dramatist.
An urn draped in cloth is a classical symbol of the urns used in ancient times to contain the ashes of the dead, though cremation was not really available until the 20th Century3. The cloth represents the ‘veil’ that exists between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
Of all the 200,000 people in the cemetery, sadly most of their stories are unknown. But there are graves of famous people, and these are a few of my favourites.
John ‘Gentleman’ Jackson (1769 to 1845) was a famous bare-knuckle prize fighter, and he ran a boxing academy. In 1821, Jackson was asked to supply a force of unarmed men to preserve order at the coronation of King George IV, when he also served as a page.
Frederick Layland (1831 to 1892) was one of the largest British shipowners, and an art collector.
Gouramma (1841 to 1864) was the daughter of an Indian ruler deposed by the British. Aged 11 she travelled to Britain. Queen Victoria became her godmother and when Gouramma was christened she changed her name to Victoria and was given the title princess. Princess Victoria died of tuberculosis aged 23. I never did find her grave (see last paragraph).
Lastly Luisa Casati (1881 to 1957) was a wealthy Italian socialite who gave grand parties at her palace on the Grand Canal in Venice (now the Peggy Guggenheim museum). Luisa collected a menagerie of exotic animals and patronised famous fashion designers. But she spent all her money and died in poverty in London.
There are many other interesting people buried in the cemetery including Robert Fortune, my favourite plant thief (read more about him here), who has a very boring, recently replaced slab over his grave.
As you can tell, I think the Brompton Cemetery is well worth a visit (or click here to see a short film). Since the 39 acres have been mostly undisturbed for over 180 years, it is also a haven for wildlife. We were followed for a while by a squirrel, who was probably used to being fed. There is also a little café, that usefully provided hot chocolate and brownies for a cold, bored teenager, when her mother insisted that she was “just looking for one more grave, the map says it should be right here!”
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A churchyard is a consecrated burial ground next to a Christian Church. A graveyard is a consecrated burial ground associated with a specific church, but not next to the church (often a second burial ground). A cemetery is not attached to a church, or consecrated, though it usually has a chapel for funeral services. The word ‘cemetery’ comes from the Ancient Greek word koimeterion, meaning resting or sleeping place.
The graves being re-used at Brompton Cemetery are over 75 years old and by that time there will be very little left of the person who was buried, not even the coffin. They will dig out the grave, and if any remains are found they will be reburied in the same grave but at a greater depth, creating space for a new burial above.
Cremation was discouraged by the church and was not really an option until the 20th Century, due to the lack of crematoria. Nowadays 75% of people in the UK are cremated (around 60% in the USA).