St James Cemetery, Liverpool

St James Cemetery, Liverpool

Visited May 2018

http://www.stjamescemetery.co.uk/index/categories

In the shadow of the Anglican Cathedral in the heart of Liverpool is a park, which was formerly the city's burial ground, although many of the gravestones were cleared in the 1970s. 

The cemetery was begun in the 1820s, to be laid out similar to Père Lachaise in Paris, on the site of a former stone quarry. Burials continued until the 1930s, when the cemetery was neglected for a while. It's now a park, maintained by the Friends of St James' Garden since 2001. Having lived in Liverpool in the early 1990s, I can testify to what an amazing job they've done to clear up this space and make it feel loved again! It's a busy park on a summer's day, so taking photos or just looking at the gravestones can be tricky, with people playing football among them, picnicing, or even sunbathing on top of table tombs! 

While many stones have been cleared, a few of the more major memorials remain, in particular the Huskisson Memorial, and the sloping path down from the Cathedral to the park is lined with gravestones removed from their burials. Some areas around the edges have been left to become wilder (and there the stones are in situ), while the centre is landscaped with lawns. The walls of the former quarry have paths along them, with what appear to be mausoleums built in.