City of London Cemetery, 2019

City of London Cemetery, Epping Forest, London

Visited April 2019

The City of London cemetery is not in, or even near, the Square Mile. It's on the edge of Epping Forest, surrounded by woodland giving it a wonderfully countryside feel, despite its name. It's still an active cemetery and crematorium, so do be aware that there may be services or burials going on, especially during the week. It does, however, mean that the site has a cafe and is well provisioned with toilets!

The site is very large, and you can easily spend a few hours wandering around. There are multiple maps dotted around the site, in particular at the entrances and at the various chapels. As you walk round, you'll find memorials to the great and the good, and plenty of markers for where the burials from city churches were re-interred, having been exhumed due to overcrowding, the destruction of churches, or redevelopment of city burial grounds.

Most of the cemetery is well tended as it's still in use, but some of the older areas are a little more overgrown, and on a sunny spring day there were plenty of bluebells around the gravestones. Just across the road from the cemetery, you're on the edge of Wanstead Flats and plenty of country walks.