Bunhill Fields, City of London
Visited February 2014
Bunhill
Fields, near Old Street on the edges of the City of London, is a
historic burial ground which is now also a park. Many of the gravestones
are fenced off and accessible only by appointment, but you can still
get a good view of them from the paths. Among the great and the good
buried here are writers William Blake, John Bunyan (the author of
Pilgrim's Progress) and Daniel Defoe.
The
cemetery, unusually for the period not linked to any church, was
founded in the 1660s as a burial place for non-conformists and
dissenters (i.e. those following other religions than the Church of
England). It was closed to burials in 1853, after which it was partially
cleared and landscaped to become a park. Further landscaping took place
in the 1960s following bomb damage in the Second World War, but a large
number of gravestones remain. Despite only covering 4 acres, it's
believed that at least 120,000 people were buried here over 200 years.
Not nearly that many stones remain - 2,333 according to the City of
London, who manage the site.
Surrounded
on all sides by modern developments, and most regularly used as a cut
through or lunch spot by local office workers this doesn't really feel
like a historic (Grade 1 listed) graveyard, but it's well worth a visit.
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