Kensal Green Cemetery
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Kensal Green Cemetery, located in Kensal Green, London, England, was incorporated in 1832, and is the oldest of the 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries still in operation. It is the only Victorian cemetery established by an act of the British Parliament with a mandate that its bodies may not be exhumed and cremated or the land sold for development. Once the cemetery is filled the legislation requires that it must become a memorial park.
The cemetery is the burial site of approximately 250,000 individuals in 65,000 graves, including upwards of 500 members of the British nobility and 550 people listed in the Dictionary of National Biography. A garden style cemetery, Kensal Green is the oldest of seven private Victorian cemeteries located in the outskirts of London. Adjacent to Kensal Green is St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery.
Interred at Kensal Green is Marigold Frances Churchill, the daughter of Sir Winston Churchill and Lady Clementine who died from a fever in 1921 at age three. Some of the other notable interred here are:
- Charles Babbage, mathematician, computer scientist
- Robert Baden-Powell, soldier, writer and founder of the scouting movement
- Charles Blondin, acrobat, tightrope-walker
- George Birkbeck, doctor, academic and adult education pioneer
- Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), composer and conductor
- Wilkie Collins, author
- Freddie Mercury, singer
- Thomas Hood, poet, humorist, journalist
- Fanny Kemble, actor, poet
- William Makepeace Thackeray, writer
- Kitty Melrose, actress
- Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), author
- Ras Andargachew Messai (1902-1981), Ethiopian ruler
- Robert Owen (memorial) (1771-1858), industrialist and major social reformer
- Princess Sophia (1777-1848), "wayward" daughter of King George III
- Anthony Trollope, novelist
- William Henry Smith, businessman
- William Vincent Wallace (1812-1865), composer
- John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), artist
At the centre is All Soul's Chapel, containing several tombs as well. There is also a catacomb currently not maintained.
See also: List of famous cemeteries
External links
- Friends of the Cemetery (http://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/)
- BBC intro (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/A708464)
- 54 high-quality Kensal Green photos (http://www.suebailey.net/cemetery/?c=14) (London Cemetery Project): no caption
- Tourist webpage (http://www.xs4all.nl/~androom/dead/kensal.htm): a dozen medium-quality photos and some trivia
- Official Siobhan Fahey website (http://www.siobhanfahey.com/content/front.php): navigable chapel based on about 50 real photos of the chapel, but where there are doors, some are replaced with sky, others with information pages about Fahey. Nevertheless, it offers high quality photos of the interior of the chapel unfound elsewhere on-line. (See also Siobhan Fahey.)
- London's Victorian Garden Cemeteries (http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/london/cemeteries.shtml)