Brompton Cemetery

Having recently learned that Brompton Cemetery is a Royal Park as are Hyde Park  and Bushey Park in London and Surrey, mrs maytrees and I decided to visit the cemetery yesterday, having a year or two back enjoyed a visit with younger brother John and his wife Jan, to Highgate Cemetry Highgate Cmetery. Neither of us had visited Brompton Cemetery previously having only just learned of its existence,

Unlike  Brompton Cemetery, Highgate Cemetery is not a Royal Park though neither of  course is Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, which I have visited several times enroute to the TGV to Lourdes from the nearby train terminus..

Montparnasse Cemetery is a sprawl of interesting and beautiful graves  and Highgate has many tombs and graves which include that of Lenin and Alexander Litvinenko who  the Russians seem to have  assassinated,   as he died from Polonium-210.

Mrs maytrees and I traveled to West Brompton on the District Line from Wimbledon and found the cemetery next door to the station. Intitially however, we turned left rather than right from the station, and were soon lost but came across the huge Earls Court  housing redevelopment which like many housing issues in England, has been delayed by objections about for example concerning affordable housing and architectural  appearance. My own thought was that both West Brompton Overground and District Line stations would be overwhelmed by the thousands of people eventually expected  to reside within the old Earls Court site. However that will not be for years hence.

Having been guided back to the correct route by a helpful stranger, who said how much he enjoyed the flowers on many graves there, we soon entered the cemetery.

The grave of Emmeline Pankhurst the famous suffragette is at Brompton and is pictured above.

The cemetery chapel has only just been restored and opened and may be visited at weekends.

Near to the grave of Emily Pankhurst is that of Doctor John Snow who did much groundbreaking research into  the scourge of Cholera.

There is also a decent cafe nearby which suited us for home made cake and tea.

Opposite  the cafe was a very attractive small but modern, information office from which we received maps and directions to graves which we wished to see.

The grave of Sir Henry Cole without whom the V&A might not have been built is within the cemetery as is that of Metropolitan Anthony, who was head of the Russian Orthodox and Patriarchal Church in Great Britain and Ireland. His grave is one of the most visited apparently.

Some of the graves are very large and ornate but we gathered that such would not be permitted today although a burial site at some £1,000s seems expensive enough anyway. For example the tomb below

Three times a year one can visit the tombs or catacombs underground. We visited the underground catacombs at Palermo in Sicily which were very bizarre and interesting though I am not sure I would would wish to see them there again.

Overall a very interesting visit,  especially as the rain held off until the Underground District Line  arrived back in Wimbledon.