Events at Kensal Green Cemetery 2025

This summer, the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery invite you to take part in two interesting events at Kensal Green Cemetery in London, United Kingdom.

Brown’s Hotel and Luxury Living Stories at Kensal Green Cemetery

Saturday, 21st June 2025, at 10:30

• 10:30 | Arrivals at the Dissenters Chapel for welcome drinks
• 11:00 – 12:00 | Talk "Brown’s Hotel: London’s oldest luxury hotel – a secret history of rulers, writers and rascals" | Andy Williamson will take us on a walk visiting the final resting place of James Brown and his family, other famous hoteliers and fascinating personalities, who ended up in Kensal Green Cemetery. Learn the connection of Lady Byron with the Brown’s Hotel and many other fascinating stories.
• 12:00 – 13:00 | Buffet Lunch
• 13:00 – 14:30 | Guided tour "Luxury living and fine dining: Hotelkeepers at Kensal Green" | Join Andy Williamson on a walking tour of the cemetery to discover the final resting places of hoteliers, aristocrats, and influential characters of London's high society – including James Brown, founder of Brown’s Hotel. Learn about their extraordinary lives and connections to the world of luxury hospitality. After the tour there will be time for questions and hot drinks.

Tickets:

• General: £25.00
• Concessions: £20.00
• Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery members: £8.00

More information and booking: https://kensalgreen.co.uk/booking.php

Joseph Locke and others - a Tour of Kensal Green Cemetery

Saturday, 9th August 2025, at 14:00

Guided walk at Kensal Green Cemetery, telling the stories of railway engineers and promoters buried here on the 220th anniversary of Joseph Locke's birth.

Tickets:

• General: £12.00
• Concessions: £10.00
• Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery members: Free (booking essential)

More information and booking: https://kensalgreen.co.uk/events.php
Note: Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery members, please book via the members area of the website: https://kensalgreen.co.uk/member-area/

*Photo source: www.kensalgreen.co.uk

Events at Kensal Green Cemetery 2023

This September, the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery are excited to invite you to two events that will take place at the Kensal Green Cemetery in London, United Kingdom.

Victorian Death and Mourning

Tuesday, 5th September 2023, at 19.30

At no other period in British history were there such excesses in funerary pomp at all levels of society as during the nineteenth century. This talk will examine Victorian attitudes to death and consider the associated paraphernalia, including the hearses, mourning dresses and keepsakes.

Robert Stephenson is a tour leader at three Victorian cemeteries and the chairman of the National Federation of Cemetery Friends.

The event will take place at the Dissenter's Chapel of Kensal Green Cemetery, 391 Ladbroke Grove, W10 5AB. Please arrive by the entrance from Ladbroke Grove, which will be open specially for this event.

Doors open at 18.45 pm for refreshments and wine.

This event was to take place at Brompton Cemetery, but the venue was changed to Kensal Green Cemetery.

More information and to book: https://kensalgreen.co.uk/events.php

Napoleonic Stories at Kensal Green Cemetery

Saturday, 23rd September 2023, from 10.30 to 16.00

Guided Walk – Interactive talk and costumed presentation - Refreshments

Kensal Green Cemetery is the last resting place of probably more participants in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars than any other civilian location. Over two hundred members of the army and navy of the time are there, as well as a number of civilian witnesses. We propose an event that would remember them and the turbulent times they lived through.

The event will also cover the social history and culture of the period, including entertainment and the roles of women and families.

A buffet lunch is included.

More information and to book: https://kensalgreen.co.uk/events.php

Please note: where applicable the member discount code is: FoKGC2023
Please enter the code at checkout.

ASCE Conference 2021: call for papers

Cemetourism: Cemeteries with stories to tell

Call for papers

This year’s conference of the Association of Significant Cemeteries of Europe (ASCE) has the

theme Cemetourism: Cemeteries with stories to tell. It will take a practical rather than historical

approach to significant cemeteries, looking at questions of ‘how’:

• How can cemeteries communicate their cultural importance to the public? 
• How can cemeteries establish why are they important, and to whom?  
• How can cemeteries engage with visitors and potential visitors?  
• How best can cemeteries share their understanding of their cultural value? 
• How can cemeteries enrich the visitor experience? 
• How can cemeteries do all this while respecting their primary purpose as places of burial?

We are seeking speakers with practical knowledge or experience who can communicate well to

a broad international audience.

Conference dates and venue

Thursday 11 and Friday 12 November 2021. Online, via Zoom.  

Organised by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust for the Association of Significant Cemeteries of Europe.

Conference themes

Papers are invited along the following themes: 

• Understanding the cultural significance of cemeteries
• Developing the unique story of your cemetery
• Wayfinding: helping visitors navigate to the parts that matter
• Cemetery museums: complementing the outdoor experience
• Cultural programming in cemeteries
• Working with tourism promotion agencies
• Reconciling tourism with burial activities

Conference papers

Papers should last no longer than 25 minutes, excluding questions. The conference language is English. You will need to be able to present online to participate.

Proposals

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words summarising your intended paper no later
than Friday 9 July 2021. Please use the form at this link.

Successful contributors will be notified by 26 July 2021.  Conference bookings will open on 1 September 2021.

Editorial board

• Ian Dungavell
• John Moffatt
• Ioanna Paraskevopoulou 
• Andreea Pop

Further information

Please email 2021@cemetourism.net. Follow us on Twitter: @Cemetourism and Facebook.

Arthur Tait BEM (1935-2021)

In January we received the sad news of the death of Arthur Tait who has died at the age of 86 after a short illness.

Arthur Tait was chairman of The Friends of Brompton Cemetery for over 20 years and never lost faith in his ambition to achieve a major restoration of Brompton. He worked tirelessly for decades with the Friends and the Royal Parks to achieve £6.2 million in grants in 2016. He had the great satisfaction of seeing Brompton transform from a near wilderness, to a restored cemetery with a new visitor centre and café, playing an active role in modern society. In recognition of this achievement, the UK government awarded him the BEM (British Empire Medal for civil services worthy of recognition by the crown) in 2019.

Arthur was also a wonderfully diplomatic chairman of the National Federation of Cemetery Friends for more than a decade. I well remember benefiting from his wise and patient advice on several occasions.

He was also a staunch supporter of our Association, and firmly supported the European Routes Project.

Our thoughts and sympathies go to his wife Ann and his family at this sad time.

John Moffat UK Steering Group member

WDEC in London (West Norwood Cemetery), United Kingdom

#EuropeForCulture West Norwood Cemetery present the following programme for WDEC 2018:

Lectures at Kensal Green Cemetery and a Dickens Fellowship event

Two lectures and a Dickens Fellowship event will take place at Kensal Green Cemetery in June and July 2015. 

WDEC 2014 - Guided tour at West Norwood Cemetery

On Sunday, 1st of June 2014, there will be a special, architecturally themed guided tour at West Norwood Cemetery in London.

Highgate Cemetery (London, United Kingdom)

Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, and one of England’s greatest treasures.

About the cemetery

Highgate Cemetery is designated as Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. The tomb of Karl Marx, the Egyptian Avenue and the Columbarium are Grade I listed buildings.

The cemetery is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery, which consist of approximately 170.000 deceased in around 53.000 graves. The Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the notable people buried there as well as for its "de facto" status as a nature reserve. 

Highgate Cemetery was featured in the popular media from the 1960s to the late 1980s for its so-called occult past, particularly as being the alleged site of the "Highgate Vampire".

Cemetery history

The cemetery in its original form – the northwestern wooded area – opened in 1839, as part of a plan to provide seven large, modern cemeteries, known as the "Magnificent Seven", around the outside of central London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead. The initial design was by architect and entrepreneur Stephen Geary.

On Monday 20 May 1839, Highgate Cemetery was dedicated to St. James by the Right Reverend Charles Blomfield, Lord Bishop of London. Fifteen acres were consecrated for the use of the Church of England, and two acres set aside for Dissenters. Rights of burial were sold for either limited period or in perpetuity. The first burial was Elizabeth Jackson of Little Windmill Street, Soho, on 26 May.

Cemetery characteristics

Highgate, like the others of the Magnificent Seven, soon became a fashionable place for burials and was much admired and visited. The Victorian attitude to death and its presentation led to the creation of a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings.

It occupies a spectacular south-facing hillside site slightly downhill from the top of the hill of Highgate itself, next to Waterlow Park. In 1854 the area to the east of the original area across Swains Lane was bought to form the eastern part of the cemetery. This part is still used today for burials, as is the western part. Most of the open unforested area in the new addition still has fairly few graves on it.

The cemetery's grounds are full of trees, shrubbery and wild flowers, most of which have been planted and grown without human influence. The grounds are a haven for birds and small animals such as foxes.

The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon (topped by a huge Cedar of Lebanon) feature tombs, vaults and winding paths dug into hillsides. For its protection, the oldest section, which holds an impressive collection of Victorian mausoleums and gravestones, plus elaborately carved tombs, allows admission only in tour groups. The eastern section, which contains a mix of Victorian and modern statuary, can be toured unescorted.

Video about the Highgate Cemetery

Address

Highgate Cemetery
Swain's Ln,
London N6 6PJ
United Kingdom

Contacts

Tel.: +44 20 8340 1834
Website

Brompton Cemetery in B&W

Take a moment and enjoy some detailed views of Brompton cemetery in London.

Nunhead Cemetry (London, United Kingdom)

Nunhead Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London, England.

About the cemetery

The Nunhead Cemetry 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. Its 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.

*Text source: www.fonc.org.uk

Contacts

Nunhead Cemetery
Linden Gr, London SE15 3LW
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7639 3121
Website: www.fonc.org.uk

Abney Cemetery (London, United Kingdom)

The park originated in the eighteenth century when the land was laid out by Lady Mary Abney.

History

For many years, this land was home to Dr Isaac Watts, the "father of hymnology", whose "Busy Little Bee" and "O God our help in ages past" are well known today.

By the early nineteenth century, the grounds were used, in part, by a novel Quaker school for girls founded by William Allen and Grizelle Birkbeck.

However its most well-know land-use dates from 1840, when a unique non-denominational garden cemetery was laid out with a remarkable A to Z arboretum, and a small Wesleyan training college. Its centre-piece, the Abney Park Chapel, was deigned to be a landmark to religious toleration, being open to all. It formed a dramatic centre-piece, overlooking a well timbered landscape and specialist planting by Loddiges Nursery.

Cemetery trust

The original cemetery trust was sold to a commercial company in the 1880s, who ran it for almost a hundred years before it became insolvent, and closed in 1978, passing the property to the London borough of Hackney. Ideas for the restoration of the chapel as a visitor centre and for the future management of the historic park with community involvement, were developed during the 1980s. Since 1991 the park has been leased to the Abney Park Trust as a nature reserve, educational facility, and memorial park, in partnership with the freeholder, the London Borough of Hackney.

The Council remains responsible for the residual cemetery function, being a burial authority whose practices and duties towards the maintenance of the park and the relatives of those interred here, are governed by the Local Authorities Cemeteries Order 1977. However certain areas are closed altogether to burial and headstone rights acquired from the former cemetery company, including all paths.

Training centre

The Trust opened a visitor centre in the front lodge, restored the outer and inner courtyard, and upon becoming an accredited training centre added temporary classroom facilities, stone and woodcraft carving workshops, and a children’s garden. Creative and performing arts are also supported, as is a continuing memorial function. Unlike many historic parks and gardens, including some garden cemeteries from the same era, the Trust allows the public to enjoy the grounds during daylight hours free of any membership requirement or entrance charge. Opening and closing times are set by the Trust, and serviced by the Hackney Park’s Service.

The Trust has been an Accredited Training Centre for City and Guilds for over 15 years, and holds an "Approved Centre" certificate for City and Guilds and the National Proficiency Test Council. In recent years the Trust has been granted accreditation to offer various training courses for NPTC and the Awarding Body Consortium in horticulture, conservation, woodwork, Skills for Working Life, and a level 2 diploma in work-based environmental conservation. Most recently the Trust has expanded its provision of practical skill workshops to offer non-certificated drop-in courses open to all for stone carving and woodcraft, funded by Natural England and the Big Lottery.

*Photo source: www.wikipedia.org

Address

Abney Park Trust
South Lodge, Abney Park
Stoke Newington High Street
London N16 0LH
United Kingdom

Contacts

Tel: 0044 207 275 7557
Email: abney-park@geo2.poptel.org.uk

Website: www.abneypark.org

Brompton Cemetery (London, United Kingdom)

Brompton Cemetery, consecrated by the Bishop of London in June 1840, is one of the Britain's oldest and most distinguished garden cemeteries.

About the Cemetery

The 39-acre (16 hectare) site lies between Old Brompton and Fulham Roads, on the western border of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, then a distant suburb and now a populous and diverse community in the heart of London.

Brompton Cemetery's principal buildings were designed by Benjamin Baud, under the influence of his long association with royal architect Sir Jeffry Wyatville. Time, money and a difference of opinion conspired against the completion of Baud's grand design, but the site still embodies the vision of the cemetery as an open air cathedral, with the tree-lined Central Avenue as its nave, and the domed Chapel, in honey-coloured Bath Stone, as its high altar.

Two long colonnades embrace the Great Circle, reputedly inspired by the piazza of St. Peter's in Rome, and shelter catacombs beneath. Narrower paths run like aisles parallel to main axis, shaded by an array of mature trees. Many of these, like the limes on Central Avenues, are as old as the cemetery itself. Specimen plantings have survived in the shelter of the walled site to create the ideal model of the urban garden cemetery as a country park in miniature.

In an area with few green spaces or outdoor recreational facilities, the cemetery offers an oasis in all seasons, with paths for walkers and cyclists, and hours of diversion for historians, genealogists, naturalists and connoisseurs of memorial art and sculpture. Brompton Cemetery is managed by The Royal Parks, under contract from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and is thus Britain's only Crown Cemetery.

Some 35.000 monuments, from simple headstones to substantial mausolea, now mark the resting place of more than 205.000 burials. The site includes large plots for family mausolea, and common graves where coffins are piled deep into the earth, as well as a small columbarium. Brompton was closed to burials between 1952 and 1996, but is once again a working cemetery, with plots for interments and a Garden of Remembrance for the deposit of cremated remains.

Famous people buried in the cemetery

The famous include epidemiologist Dr. John Snow, suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, tenor Richard Tauber, author George Borrow, critic Bernard Levin, V&A founder Henry Cole, cricketer John Wisden, Egyptologist Joseph Bonomi, novelist George Henty, shipping magnate Sir Samuel Cunard, colonialist Admiral Sir Charles Fremantle, playwright Walter Brandon Thomas, composer Constant Lambert, auctioneer Samuel Leigh Sotheby, and no less than 12 recipients of the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for military gallantry.

Friends of Brompton Cemetery  

The Friends of Brompton Cemetery work to preserve this remarkable site as a model of an historic cemetery with an active role in modern society. We help to restore and maintain the cemetery's buildings, monuments and landscape, and encourage their full use by those sympathetic to the importance, beauty, heritage and fragility of this significant cemetery. We offer visitors Sunday afternoon tours, guidebooks, maps and postcard.

Address

The Friends of Brompton Cemetery
South Lodge
Brompton Cemetery
Fulham Road
London SW10 9UG
United Kingdom

Contacts

Phone:
020 7351 1689

Other information:

Website

Kensal Green Cemetery (London, United Kingdom)

Located in the heart of London traversing the borders of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham is one of London’s oldest and most distinguished public burial grounds.

About the cemetery

Inspired by the cemetery of Père Lachaise in Paris and founded in 1833 by the Barrister George Frederick Carden, Kensal Green Cemetery comprises of 72 acres of beautiful grounds including two conservation areas and an adjoining canal. The cemetery is home to 33 species of bird and other wildlife.

This distinctive cemetery includes many different memorials ranging from large mausoleums housing of rich and famous to many distinctive smaller graves and even includes special areas dedicated to the very young. With three chapels catering for people of all faiths and social standing the General Cemetery Company is proud to have provided a haven in the heart London for over 170 years for its inhabitants. Visitors can remember their loved one in a tranquil and dignified environment.

West London Crematorium and gardens

Kensal Green Cemetery is also the home of the West London Crematorium and its extensive gardens. Here a great variety of memorials can be seen, ranging from Private Gardens exclusively dedicated for individual families to Columbarium Wall Niches able to securely house the ashes of your loved one in marble or wooden caskets undisturbed for decades.

And then there are the Rose gardens: row after row of Rose Trees each one in its own plot, all individually accessible and tended all year round by our gardeners. Even our Rose Bushes are arranged carefully into beds laid out in rows so they too are all individually accessible, something not found in other Memorial Gardens.

*Photo source: www.kensalgreencemetery.com

Contacts

Registered Head Office
The West London Crematorium at Kensal Green
Harrow Road
London

Phone: 020 8969 0152
Fax: 020 8960 9744
Email: info@kensalgreencemetery.com

Opening hours

1st April - 30th September
Monday - Saturday: 9am - 6pm
Sunday: 10am - 6pm

1st October - 31st March
Monday - Saturday: 9am - 5pm
Sunday: 10am - 5pm

Bank Holidays: 10am - 1pm

The Cemetery opening times are for the Crematorium gate. Main gate closes 30 minutes earlier. Visitors will not be admitted to the Cemetery in the half hour before closing.

Gardens of remembrance
The gardens are open every day of the year including weekends and bank holidays.

How to find us

By car
The entrance to the cemetery is in Harrow Road, only 15 minutes drive from the West End via Edgeware Road, and 5 minutes from M40/Westway via Scrubs Lane.

By train
Kensal Green Station is served by both British Rail (Euston/Watford) and London Underground (Bakerloo tine), Kensal Rise by British Rail, and Ladbroke Grove by Underground Hammersmith & City Line.

By bus
Routes 18 Harrow Road, 302 and 52 Ladbroke Grove/Kilburn Lane.

West Norwood Cemetery (London, United Kingdom)

West Norwood Cemetery, also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery, is one of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of London.

About the cemetery

West Norwood Cemetery is one of the metropolitan cemeteries founded to deal with the expanding population of London in the early 19th century. It was opened in 1837 and it has 65 Grade II and Grade II* listed monuments, such as memorials to Mrs Beeton, Sir Henry Doulton, James William Gilbart, Dr William Marsden, Baron Julius de Reuter, Charles Spurgeon and Sir Henry Tate.

Friends of West Norwood Cemetery

To increase knowledge and appreciation of the West Norwood Cemetery, the Friends hold general tours on the first Sunday of every month, hold special themed tours during the summer and meetings with talks during the winter.

FWNC also publishes three newsletters a year, and are starting to produce booklets on notable people buried in the cemetery. They aim is to raise funds for conservation work, and to encourage other organisations and individuals to make contributions. As a result, numerous monuments have been repaired or more substantially restored during the past decade, and an extensive programme of works directed by Lambeth Council is currently under way. 

*Photo source: www.ourworldforyou.com

Address

Friends of West Norwood Cemetery in London
Norwood Road
SE27 9JU London
United Kingdom

Contacts

Tel: +44 2079267900
Tel/Fax: +44 2079268030
Email: chairman@fownc.org

Website: http://www.fownc.org

Tourist info

Visit London
http://www.visitlondon.com

City Portal
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

Tube, Buses, Taxi
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl