Sir Henry Tate's mausoleum of 1884. Designed by E George and Harold Peto. A Grade 2* listed building. Covered in Dalton's of Lambeth terracotta tiles
Early nineteenth century inner London burial grounds were in a parlous state: they were so full that bodies were buried in graves so shallow that any scavenging animal could uncover them; and they were a ready source of income for grave robbers and body snatchers. Such was the outcry that Parliament was petitioned and between 1837 and 1841, six cemeteries were established on greenfield sites outside the city boundaries in Kensal Green, Highgate, Brompton, Abney Park, Nunhead and the hamlet of Norwood.
The West Norwood cemetery was formed when the South Metropolitan Cemetery Company bought 40 acres of land in the fields and wooded hills around the small village that has since become a London suburb. Apart from paths and the local unsurfaced track through the village, there was no major transport route nearby and all the funerals were by horse-drawn hearse followed by the carriages of the mourners and those on foot. When the Baptist Minister, the Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon died in 1892, his funeral was attended by more mourners that any other in the history of the cemetery, most of them on foot and, presumably, many of them being the same people who had attended his services at the Metropolitan Tabernacle where his “magnificent voice and command of pure idiomatic Saxon English” attracted huge congregations. The cemetery became, for south London and north Surrey and Kent, the fashionable place to be buried.
In 1842 the Brotherhood of the Greek Community in London, wealthy merchants, many of whom had fled persecution in the Ottoman Empire, bought five acres of the cemetery and in 1872 enlarged it, making a most remarkable cemetery within a cemetery. Grand tombs and mausolea were built, perhaps the most impressive of which is the mortuary chapel, a handsome Greek Doric style building, built in memory of Augustus Ralli who died at Eton in 1872. This chapel has a beautiful ceiling, which is richly coffered in blue and gold.
Over the next century or so, and before it followed the fate of its inner London predecessors, West Norwood cemetery became the resting ground for many famous people.
Perhaps the most famous grave is that of Isabella Beeton (1836-1865), whose book “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management”, with its 3,000 recipes and countless hints for running a Victorian household, was a huge success, selling more than 60,000 copies in its first year. She died young, being only 29 when she died if puerperal fever.
Gideon Mantell (1790-1852) was a surgeon with an abiding interest in geology. It was his discovery of a fossilised tooth from a creature he named “Iguanodon” that gave impetus to paleontology and the discovery and classification of dinosaurs, the creatures that inspired “Jurassic Park” and the monsters in nearby Crystal Palace Park whose construction benefited from his knowledge.
The tomb of Sir Henry Doulton (d.1897) is a handsome mausoleum in red brick and terracotta tiles, presumably from his riverside factory in nearby Lambeth. There used to be Doulton vases inside but these have been stolen.
Close by is another terracotta mausoleum, that of the art collector, philanthropist and Unitarian, Sir Henry Tate (d.1899) whose invention of the sugar cube made him a huge fortune and lead to the formation of the Tate Gallery and a number of libraries in south London.
Nearby is the grave of Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) whose process of converting cast iron into steel revolutionised steel manufacture by not only reducing the cost of production, but making it possible to use steel where previously only cast iron had been used.
Baron Julius de Reuter (1816-1899) first realised the importance of collecting and transmitting telegraphic news and he established his news agency in London, at the Royal Exchange, in 1851. His grave is marked by a pink granite monument.
Many wealthy and influential Victorians whose names are still remembered today are in West Norwood, but also lying there are those who in their time were famous for things more ephemeral than steel, cubed sugar or pottery.
The prize-fighter, Tom Spring (1795-1851), the Champion of England, lies beneath a monument showing a lion lying down with a lamb, now, alas, somewhat worn away and covered in ivy. His bare-fist fights attracted thousands, and he was so famous in his day that a weekly newspaper was named after him: “Tom Spring’s Sporting Chronicle”.
William Dufton (1830-1877) was a famous billiard-player who in one match won £1,000, a huge amount then. His other claim to fame was that he taught the Prince of Wales to play billiards. Was Queen Victoria amused by that? Dufton committed suicide and is buried in a common grave.
That great institution of Victorian life, the Music Hall, is also represented. Fred Kitchen (1872-1951) was a famous comedian on the halls. He was part of Fred Karno’s troupe and at one time he worked with Charlie Chaplin. Much of Kitchen’s humour was visual; with his large feet and bandy legs, his walk always raised a laugh and, some said, was the origin of Chaplin’s Little Tramp’s walk.
James Basseti (1854-1907) whose stage name was “Charles Bertram” was a leading conjuror on the Victorian stage. He was not only popular with audiences but with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, to whom he bore a marked resemblance. He appeared before the Royal Household many times and earned the title “the King’s conjuror”.
Beneath the Dissenters’ chapel, now demolished, are the catacombs Although almost abandoned, they are dry, well ventilated and there are some lights.
In the central aisle of the catacombs is an ingenious piece of machinery, a hydraulic catafalque that silently brought down the coffins from the chapel above. The machine now is rusty and covered with spider’s webs and droppings.
From the central aisle, others run off, stacked with coffins. If a body was to be deposited in the catacombs it had to be encased in lead, then placed in a coffin which was then covered in either satin or leather on which many fine patterns were made with nails. Some coffins still had leather tatters hanging from them. The catacombs were intended to contain 2,000 coffins.
In the early 80’s criminals found it attractive for storing their drug hauls, for what better place was there for their nefarious activities than somewhere no-one went and which provided large, secure underground premises rent free?
Stories of ghosts and spectres have always been associated with graveyards and it was someone talking of “eerie” noises and “spooky” lights coming from the cemetery that alerted the police and eventually brought the drug runners to their end.
Since taking it over in 1966, Lambeth Council has done much not only to restore the cemetery to a semblance of its previous grandeur, but it has brought to the public the ecological value of such places in built-up areas.
There is a wide variety of shrubs and trees and in Spring daffodils and primroses flourish. The cemetery has wildlife also, being home to foxes, squirrels and owls and kestrels nest on the pediment of the Greek mortuary chapel. In Egyptian mythology, a hawk is one of the forms a disembodied person might adopt when visiting his body after it was mummified. What an appropriate visitor!
For further information go to Friends of West Norwood Cemetery website
(First published in Palace Magazine Oct 2007)
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