Hampstead Cemetery

Hampstead Cemetery

Hampstead Cemetery is situated on Fortune Green Road, London, at the upper extremity of the NW6 district. Despite the name, the cemetery is three-quarters of a mile from Hampstead Village, and bears a different postcode.

The cemetery is open from 9am to 4:45pm in the summer (3:45pm in the winter) and from 10am on Sundays and bank holidays.

Location and History

Hampstead Cemetery is bordered on the northern side by the sports ground of Hampstead School. A public footpath running from Hocroft Road to Fortune Green runs through the cemetery, effectively splitting it in two.

Opened in 1876, The entire site covers 26 acres, and an estimated 60,000 people are buried there. While there are no new grave spaces available, there is an area for cremated remains to the north of the cemetery, by the Fortune Green Road exit. The cemetery is managed by Islington and Camden Cemetery Service.

The cemetery boasts two Gothic-style chapels, both of which are listed buildings. There is also an entry lodge made of Kentish Rag and Bath stone. There has been some major work to these buildings under a scheme provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Notable Burials

Amongst the famous people interred there are:

• Nigel Balchin, novelist

• Francis Barraud, painter (most notably of His Master's Voice)

• Charles Herbert Barritt

• Dennis Brain, horn player

• Gladys Cooper, actor

• Elliott Spiers, actor

• Alan Coren, writer and satirist

• William Randal Cremer

• Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti

• Frank Bernard Dicksee, Pre-Raphaelite painter

• Andrew Fisher, fifth Prime Minister of Australia

• Banister Fletcher, architect

• Gilbert Frankau, novelist

• Ronald Frankau, comedian and partner of Tommy Handley

• Pamela Frankau, author

• Ronald Fraser, actor

• Walter Goodman, artist, author and illustrator

• Kate Greenaway, children's book illustrator

• Lillian Hall-Davis, actor

• John Hargrave

• Henry Arthur Jones, playwright

• Goscombe John, sculptor

• Joseph Lister, discoverer of Antiseptic treatment of wounds

• Peter Llewelyn Davies, J.M. Barrie's inspiration for the character Peter Pan

• Marie Lloyd, music hall star

• Charlotte Mew, poet

• Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and his wife

• Alan Moorehead, writer

• Tom O'Brien (UK politician)

• Joseph Rotblat, Nobel Laureate

• Eustace Short, co-founder of Short Brothers

• George Adolphus Storey, Painter

• Fred Terry, actor

• Florence Kate Upton, creator of the Golliwogg

Charlotte Mew, poet

Other Notable Monuments

The cemetery also contains several graves notable either from an architectural point of view or for the eccentric inscriptions they bear.

Architecture

File:Bianchi2.jpg

The Bianchi Monument

The Eastern part of the cemetery houses the so-called Bianchi Monument, a large triangular grave for the Gall family, executed in the finest Art Deco style. The most prominent feature of the grave - a stylised sculpture of a female angel raising her hands to heaven - has become famous in its own right, and often adorns the covers of local guidebooks.

Similarly, the tomb of James Wilson ('Wilson Pasha'), Chief Engineer to the Egyptian Government (1875-1901), executed in red marble and also found in the eastern section, has a striking Egyptian look to it.

The monument built by the sculptor Sir William Goscombe John to his wife Marthe (d.1923) was stolen from the cemetery in 2001 but later returned after being spotted at an auction a few months later. It was then moved to East Finchley Cemetery but was once more stolen from a storage area in autumn 2006. It has not been recovered.

Inscriptions

The cemetery contains more than one grave with humorous or bizarre inscriptions. On the main avenue of the Eastern section can be seen the grave of John Kensit, (died 1902) a religious protestor who was "struck down by the missile of an assassin in Birkenhead", actually a chisel thrown by a member of a crowd he was preaching to (the man was charged with manslaughter but later acquitted).

Nearby is the headstone of Charles Cowper Ross, "A man of the theatre", which bears the inscription:

What will be said,

When I am dead,

Of what I used to do?

They liked my smile?

I failed with style?

Or, more than likely, "Who?"

Flora and Fauna

The cemetery has a large number of mature ash trees. Other trees include yew, sycamore, Norway maple, silver birch, Lombardy poplar, purple cherry-plum, willow and Swedish whitebeam.

There is a wildlife area in the north part of the eastern half of the cemetery. This has been planted with trees, shrubs and wild flowers especially attractive to wildlife, such as field maple, hazel, oak, oxeye daisy, common knapweed and bird's-foot-trefoil. This is where most of the site's butterflies are to be found, including small white, speckled wood, holly blue, meadow brown and small copper.

Birds recorded in the cemetery include jay, green woodpecker, long-tailed tit, goldcrest, willow warbler and linnet. It is also home to the ubiquitous grey squirrel, as well as many species of fungi.