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The London Burial Grounds: Notes On Their History From The Earliest Times To The Present Day
The London Burial Notes On Their History From The Earliest Times To The Present Day (1896) is a book written by Mrs. Basil Holmes. The book provides a comprehensive history of the burial grounds in London from the earliest times to the present day. The author explores the various burial grounds that have existed in London, including the ancient Roman burial grounds, the medieval churchyards, and the modern cemeteries. She also examines the different types of burials that have taken place in London, such as the burials of famous people, the burials of criminals, and the burials of the poor. The book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history of London or the history of burial practices. It is written in a clear and concise style, making it accessible to both scholars and general readers.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 3, 2024
My interest in London’s burial grounds started not because I have a morbid interest in these places but because long ago I learned that they can be the source of some very interesting facts. I’ve toured US Civil War burial grounds, many military WWI & WWII cemeteries and countless village church yards throughout Europe and have always found something there to help understand more about the life and times of those who are buried there.
But my main interest in London’s burial grounds is partly because they exist, layer on layer through such a long period of time and partly because many people don’t want to admit they are there at all. As the author says, “It must be remembered that it is to the interest of the owner of a yard to keep the circumstance of its having been used for interments in the background, and he is not pleased if, when he wants to put up a wall or enlarge a shed, he is stopped from doing so by the enforcement of the Disused Burial-Grounds Act of 1834…”
And things never got any better. For example, as late as 1988, a routine excavation for Guildhall's new art gallery hit the foundations of a Roman amphitheater in the shape of an oval the size of a football field! It took another twenty years to preserve the remains in a spectacular gallery of their own. But it turns out those remains had first been recorded almost forty years before, when postwar reconstruction was first getting underway. The significance of what the archaeologists found, it was said, just hadn't been spotted at the time. Or had it?
But I digress. Isabella M. Holmes – maybe the name matters – took her magnifying lens to ancient and more modern maps and tracked down a huge number of London’s burial grounds. More than that she manages to give the reader some idea of the customs and rituals that went with the burials at different times of their existence.
Let’s face it, how else would we ever know that a written absolution was placed on the body of a corpse of a monk or nun and buried along with the body?
Back then though no one imagined a CV or reference might one day be sent on by email
But my main interest in London’s burial grounds is partly because they exist, layer on layer through such a long period of time and partly because many people don’t want to admit they are there at all. As the author says, “It must be remembered that it is to the interest of the owner of a yard to keep the circumstance of its having been used for interments in the background, and he is not pleased if, when he wants to put up a wall or enlarge a shed, he is stopped from doing so by the enforcement of the Disused Burial-Grounds Act of 1834…”
And things never got any better. For example, as late as 1988, a routine excavation for Guildhall's new art gallery hit the foundations of a Roman amphitheater in the shape of an oval the size of a football field! It took another twenty years to preserve the remains in a spectacular gallery of their own. But it turns out those remains had first been recorded almost forty years before, when postwar reconstruction was first getting underway. The significance of what the archaeologists found, it was said, just hadn't been spotted at the time. Or had it?
But I digress. Isabella M. Holmes – maybe the name matters – took her magnifying lens to ancient and more modern maps and tracked down a huge number of London’s burial grounds. More than that she manages to give the reader some idea of the customs and rituals that went with the burials at different times of their existence.
Let’s face it, how else would we ever know that a written absolution was placed on the body of a corpse of a monk or nun and buried along with the body?
Back then though no one imagined a CV or reference might one day be sent on by email
April 27, 2014
This may seem like a rather dull book about the history of London Burial Grounds, but trust me, it is an absolute GEM. The wonderfully eccentric Mrs Basil (Isabella) Holmes published this book in 1896 after trawling all over London and finding out every single burial ground in the city. The first part of the book is concerned with the history of the burial grounds, but being as this is a fin-de-siecle book and very much part of the cult of social investigation which was going on at the time, it quickly becomes a platform for Mrs Holmes to moralise about the disgusting state of the burial grounds and how much better it would be for everyone if they were all transformed into metropolitan public gardens for the benefit of the lower classes living in the East End. Coincidentally (or not, as the case may be) her husband (Mr Basil Holmes) was the Secretary for the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. There are then some wonderful descriptions of graveyards which have been transformed and their opening ceremonies, including a marvellous description of Mrs Holmes taking tea in the crypt of a renovated churchyard, complete with lace curtains partitioning off all the mausoleums. Finally, there are the illustrations - photographs of miserable looking Victorian kids being forced to play on swings with crypts in the background. Add in the park keeper (every renovated green space had a park keeper to keep an eye on those pesky kids) and indeed, part of the raison d'etre for this social reform was that it presented a way to keep an eye on the lower classes, and this is just a wonderful, wonderful piece of social history. Print on Demand £15 - absolute bargain.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews