West Norwood Cemetery, August 2019

West Norwood Cemetery

Visited August 2019

Another visit to one of my favourite of the Magnificent Seven, this time as the colours of autumn were starting to come through on an overcast late August day.

West Norwood Cemetery, London

 West Norwood Cemetery, London

Visited 2014

Another few shots of one of my favourite cemeteries within walking distance of home. This time, just a few details of monuments taken on a sunny day over 3 years ago. I love the deatails of the moss on the slab in the last image in particular.

My slightly early New Years resolution is to get back to updating this blog much more regularly. I’ve got photos and cemetery visits dating back to 2014 which need to be added, so bear with me as I try to get caught up over the next few months, and try to add new cemeteries as I visit them. 

Greek Orthodox Cemetery, West Norwood

Greek Orthodox Cemetery, West Norwood Cemetery, London

Within the large Victorian cemetery at West Norwood, itself one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’, is an unique enclosed cemetery for the Greek Orthodox community which reflects two centuries of Anglo-Hellenic connections. The ground was acquired in 1842 by London's Greek community for a Greek Orthodox cemetery. Many monuments in the Necropolis feature neoclassical Greek designs, including columns, portico roofs, stepped bases and statues in togas. Today it is overseen by the trustees of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia, a Greek Orthodox church in Bayswater, West London.

The chapel of St Stephen and 18 monuments are listed by Historic England. The mortuary chapel of St Stephen was built in neo-classical style, and was built for merchant Stephen Ralli to bury his son, who had died in 1872 of rheumatic fever while at Eton.

Plan of West Norwood Cemetery, c.1880 © London Borough of Lambeth. The Greek Cemetery, and chapel of St Stephen in particular, can be seen in the top left corner.