# Nunhead Cemetery



## Known (Sep 16, 2007)

Hi all first time here thought I'd show some pics i took yesterday of Nunhead Cemetery.

A quote from Friends of Nunhead cemetery:

_"Nunhead Cemetery is perhaps the least known, but most attractive, of the great Victorian Cemeteries of London. Consecrated in 1840, it is one of the seven great Victorian cemeteries established in a ring around the outskirts of London. It contains examples of the magnificent monuments erected in memory of the most eminent citizens of the day, which contrast sharply with the small, simple headstones marking common, or public, burials. It's formal avenue of towering limes and the Gothic gloom of the original Victorian planting gives way to paths which recall the country lanes of a bygone era."_

This place is totally overgrown save for a few access paths.

Now for the pics 























































St. Pauls






I know it isn't as interesting as a nice derelict Asylum but there we go


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## Foxylady (Sep 16, 2007)

Hi Known
Welcome to the forum. 

I really like places like this and your pics capture an atmosphere (nice one, not gloomy! ). Love that tiny mausoleum and the fungi. Excellent!

Cheers


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## sheep2405 (Sep 16, 2007)

One word,......WOW really nice stuff mate, Hi and welcome to the forum.

S


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## King Al (Sep 17, 2007)

Great work, love the mausoleum and the sun through the trees shots


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## Known (Sep 17, 2007)

Thanks for the comments  I'm based in south east London SE23, if any one is planning a trip anywhere around london.

J


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## Lone Explorer (Sep 17, 2007)

_I didn't get to make it this weekend  Goodkids_

Hi Known did get to look in the Chapel it was open from 1pm - 5pm
only open on open house weekend.

The cemetery is open to all last Sunday of each month. I read somewhere.

Thanks for posting photos


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## Known (Sep 17, 2007)

Hey, yeah I ad a quick peak in the chappel but had used up all my camera's memory by then! I think you can arrange appointments to visit again if you're really nice to the guys who run it.

which day did you go on? 

KWN


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## smileysal (Oct 2, 2007)

I love cemeteries, especially ones that are either hidden away, or totally overgrown. Love the fungi pics and the sun shining through the trees, but like all the pics. 

Theres a huge one in Mansfield, not had a look around that one for years. will have to go and get some pics in there. 

Keep the cemetery pics coming, love seeing different ones etc. 

Cheers,

 Sal


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## Lightbuoy (Oct 2, 2007)

Really crackin' report & pics there Known 
Interesting history too. Thanks for sharing your pics.
Incidentially, any ideas why the Graveyard has been left and abandoned? Thanks.

Lb


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## Known (Oct 4, 2007)

Thanks! More info can ber found here

Today the the marvellous views still remain intact despite over a century of urban expansion. It’s worth turning back as you enter through the main gates and taking in the horizon, from Canary Wharf westwards to the London Eye. This is where similarities between past and present part company as today the site is more woodland than graveyard. The changing economics of death meant that Nunhead slipped into a spiral of post war decline. A lack of care and cash surrendered the graves to the ravages of nature and vandalism, and it was not until the early 1980s that a group emerged to champion the graveyard. Since then ‘The Friends of Nunhead Cemetery’ have spearheaded a renovation and protection campaign which has replaced terminal decline with careful stewardship. However, the long term aim is not to return the site to its former glory and part of the graveyard is now a designated nature reserve. Fresh burial plots on the manicured south side of the cemetery are shadowed by a mass of tall trees and twisted undergrowth. The resulting fusion of rampant nature and human demise is as intriguing and beautiful as it is disconcerting. The main path leading from the entrance to the imposing, but long disused chapel is lined with impressive monuments. These, like most of the graves in the cemetery, display the scars of neglect, but start to look into the undergrowth, beyond the edges of the walkway, and the true scale of the cemetery begins to reveal itself. Out of the vegetation, a jumbled mass of graves appear, hundreds of stones contorted by expanding roots and throttled by advancing brambles. This is an almighty mess of cracked plinths, armless angels, overturned urns and decapitated crosses. The majority of the final resting places have been lost to the wilderness and the dense greenery is only occasionally penetrable thanks to rough paths which veer off the main thoroughfares. Often these tracks simply peter out, but sometimes they lead to tended graves, marooned among their long forgotten neighbours.


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## Lightbuoy (Oct 4, 2007)

Thanks for the extra info Known -lack of cash -I should have known!!! (err, sorry Known, no pun intended there -honest!)  Thanks again.

Lb


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## Known (Oct 5, 2007)

I recommend checking it out of you have a spare weekend - tis massive. I Only strayed a little from the path - there's so much more if you venture in further.


Map here 

Its open untill 4 most days - and there's a water works next door, might be worth an explore.

Would be happy to go again with everyone.

KWN


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## Lightbuoy (Oct 5, 2007)

Thanks Known


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## Simon-G (Nov 30, 2007)

An excellent explore mate, brilliant pics, It's astonishing that the cemetery has not been maintained, money I know but I thought there would have been something in place thats protects these sites. But then again another less place for us to explore. I will check out the link you have put in one of your posts with more info.

Thanks for the report

Simon-G


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