Abney Park Cemetery, 2018

Abney Park Cemetery, London

Visited August 2018

Abney Park Cemetery is one of the 'Magnificent Seven' Victorian cemeteries in London. It's situated off Stoke Newington High Street, and is managed as a woodland park and nature reserve, having originally been laid out as an arboretum as well as cemetery. This means everything's a bit overgrown, rather than manicured, but gives it character. On a startlingly hot summer's day, it was full of shoppers, walkers and passers by seeking a spot of shade. There's a visitor centre on site with maps, postcards, etc, and the chapel is often used for events.

The cemetery opened in 1840, and was set up for the burial of Dissenters (non-Church of England), with a non-denominational chapel at the centre. It is probably best known as the resting place of William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army, but there are over 200,000 burials here to discover!

There is an ongoing events programme at the cemetery, and if you haven't visited before then the 1st Sunday of the month guided walks are a great place to start.

Abney Park Cemetery, London

Abney Park Cemetery, London

Visited May 2012

Abney Park Cemetery, in Stoke Newington, London Borough of Hackney, is one of the 'Magnificent Seven' Victorian garden cemeteries. The entrance is right on Stoke Newington High Street, and is quite easy to walk past. But once through the Egyptian style entrance gates, an overgrown wilderness awaits - it's managed for access, but some parts feel like they've never been seen before!

Opened for burials in 1840, the cemetery was created as a non-denominational, or Dissenters, cemetery, for the burial of non-Church of England worshippers. Those buried here include the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth. In the midst of the cemetery is a non-denomination chapel, now sadly in a state of disrepair.

The cemetery was created on land which had belonged to the estates of Fleetwood House and Abney House, and was laid out not just as a cemetery, but as an arboretum with over 2500 varieties of plants and trees. Now, the cemetery is closed to burials and it is run as a Local Nature Reserve.