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London's Cemeteries

4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 · rating details · 18 ratings · 3 reviews

This pocket guide gives you all the information you will need to explore over 50 cemeteriesin the Capital. It gives detailed reviews for each cemetery, including where all the most notable people are buried, from Sid James to Karl Marx. The book also reveals some of the fascinating history surrounding London's cemeteries including the Victorian railway line dedicated to tr...more

Paperback, 231 pages

Published July 1st 2006 by Metro Publications

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Jan 01, 2013 Loren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cemetery-books

Despite its pocket size, this is more of an armchair travel book than a take-along guide to cemeteries. It only includes maps to the largest graveyards and most cemeteries rate only a page or two to cover their history, architecture, and celebrity graves. That being said, it is still a worthy addition to your cemetery library.

And it's great fun. The author describes the "tree that killed Marc Bolan" outside Barnes Common Cemetery. He encourages that respects be paid at the most tenuous celebriti...more Despite its pocket size, this is more of an armchair travel book than a take-along guide to cemeteries. It only includes maps to the largest graveyards and most cemeteries rate only a page or two to cover their history, architecture, and celebrity graves. That being said, it is still a worthy addition to your cemetery library.

And it's great fun. The author describes the "tree that killed Marc Bolan" outside Barnes Common Cemetery. He encourages that respects be paid at the most tenuous celebrities. He gushes when a cemetery is particularly beautiful and snipes when one isn't up to standard. He seems to have actually visited each of the 50 cemeteries listed herein. He is honest in his assessments: some cemeteries "could have been beautiful," some deserve visits only by completists, others suffer from "anodyne" (a word he uses repeatedly) chapels or crematory rose gardens.

Of course, the book could have more photographs. Not every cemetery gets one, but some of those includes are spectacular. My favorite is of the statue of an aviator killed in 1938 and buried in Eltham Cemetery. As the author points out, he looks he's wearing a "post-apocalyptic anti-radioactivity suit." I wouldn't have known about him without this book.

I did find a few errors, which of course call into question all the stuff I don't know cold. For instance, in the entry on Old Mortlake Cemetery, the author states in an aside that Charles Dickens is buried in Highgate West. Dickens is buried at Westminster Abbey, against his wishes. His family lies at Highgate. Later, in the entry on Greenwich Cemetery, Beach compares its views of London to the views of Paris from Montmartre's Pere Lachaise. I'm not even sure which Parisian cemetery he means here (it might be Montmartre itself or St. Denis), but Pere Lachaise is in the east of Paris and Montmartre is in the north. He's mixing metaphors.

Even so, I give this book four stars. It's added a bunch of cemeteries to my must-see list. I will just be careful to cross-reference the author's enthusiasm with other books on London cemeteries before I take what he writes as gospel.(less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Jimmie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great little reference book to the cemeteries in and around London.

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Jan 13, 2012 Kdunbier is currently reading it · review of another edition

my nightstand book. is that weird?

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Apr 19, 2013 Starry marked it as to-read

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Apr 02, 2013 Pam Young rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 29, 2013 Maria Lewis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, london, non-fiction, religion, art

Mar 03, 2013 Tabatha Rose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, cemeteries

Dec 28, 2012 Bokoholist rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Oct 28, 2012 Rullsenberg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: london, guidebook

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Shelves: travel

Jul 15, 2012 Laura marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: gothic-and-horror, non-fiction

May 07, 2012 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Shelves: london

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Nov 07, 2011 Gwnhwyfer marked it as looks-interesting · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, non-fiction, london-and-victorian-life, art-and-photography, taphophilia

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1887917.London_s_Cemeteries?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347288041l/1887917.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1887917.London_s_Cemeteries?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]London's Cemeteries by Darren Beach[/url]

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