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Lambeth
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St. Mary's Churchyard. 
South Bank, near Lambeth Bridge.The burial place of many archbishops of Canterbury, Captain Bligh (of the Bounty), Elias Ashmole, and members of the Tradescant  family. One of the most attractive churchyards in Central London, full of flowers. Over 26,000 people have been  buried in this small area.
This churchyard  was notorious for the activities of bodysnatchers. In 1794 the vestry urged the government to increase the penalties for the crime, but to little effect. 
It seems that funerals in Georgian England could be lively affairs: in 1822 at the Funeral of William Inwood, a fisherman of Lambeth, the mourners and clergyman were pelted with mud and sworn at with the most 'horrid language' by a mob. The ringleader was one Elizabeth Lyons, who ended up in jail. (The Times August 6th 1822
The church is now the Museum of Garden History, and part of the churchyard is a garden dedicated to the Tradescants - only accessible via the museum. For an idiosyncratic account of the churchyard see Iain Sinclair's Lights out for the Territory.

 
½ acre. A very old ground, enlarged in 1623 and 1820. It is very neatly laid out and the gates are left open, though there are no seats in it.   (Holmes)

 LAMBETH CHURCH.- This is close to the Bishop's Palace. There is a vault under the church, and a burying ground adjoining to it, both of which are for private or family graves. The ground is very full; it is contiguous to the river, and the soil is very damp; many of the tomb-stones have sunk into the earth.  (Walker)


Additional ground in High Street  
Now a pleasant public park, with a children's playground and paddling pool. Headstones line the walls. 

Also called Paradise Row burial-ground. 1½ acres. Given to the parish by Archbishop Tenison, and consecrated in 1705. It was laid out in 1884 by the Lambeth Vestry, who maintain it efficiently. (Holmes)

At a short distance from the church is another burying ground, belonging to the parish; it is divided into the upper, middle, and lower grounds. It is very much crowded, and the tomb-stones are deeply sunk in the earth; the state of the ground has rendered it necessary to discontinue the practice of interment. Bones are scattered about, and a part of the ground has been raised. The neighbourhood is thickly populated; the soil is very moist, and water flows in at the depth of four feet.  - Walker

Daring assault and attempt to steal dead bodies

Yesterday Mr Watmore, the vestry clerk of Lambeth, and several of the parish officers, attended before the magistrate Mr Chambers, to prefer a charge against two men, named Thomas Duffin and John Marshall, under the following circumstances: - it appeared that the burial ground of Lambeth has for a considerable time past been the scene of transactions of the most daring and horrible description. The depositories of the dead have been nightly invaded, and the feelings of surviving relatives exceedingly harrowed, by the depredations upon their deceased friends of that callous gang of wretches known by the name of Body Snatchers, whose industry in their disgusting trade has been particularly exercised in the new burial ground at Lambeth. The parish officers have been frequently called upon by the inhabitants to adopt some effectual arrangements for the discontinuance of these nefarious practices. In compliance with the general wish, they ordered Mr John Seager, the sexton, to procure some persons to keep a nightly watch; he accordingly hired two men for the purpose, and instructed them to be vigilant in their duty; still the ground was robbed; scarcely a night passed without a body being stolen, and yet the offenders were not discovered.  Mr Seager at last determined to watch in person, attended by his son and a young man named John Sharp. On Sunday night they concealed themselves in a convenient part of the burial ground, and about 10 o’clock observed two men passing over the graves. They first proceeded to that part of the ground where there were two man-traps set, which they let off; they then proceeded to the bone-house, broke it open and provided themselves with spades, and immediately afterwards commenced their operation upon a grave wherein a body had been deposited the preceding day. Mr Seager continued to watch their proceedings; they dug till the spades struck a coffin. Mr Seager then came from his concealment, and called out to these men to desist and surrender themselves; he then discovered, to his great astonishment, that they were the identical persons whom he had hired and paid to protect the ground.  Marshall sprang from the grave, and with dreadful imprecations swore that he would murder Mr Seager, and at the same time made a desperate blow at him with a spade and knocked him down; he was about repeating the blow, when Mr Seager’s son flew to the protection of his father, fired a pistol at Marshall, and wounded him in the left arm; he then thought proper to surrender.  In the mean time, the prisoner Duffin attacked John Sharp with a drawn sabre, and cut him dangerously in the forehead. Sharp had armed himself with a poker, with which he  maintained a conflict of several minutes, and at last brought his adversary to the ground: they conveyed the prisoners to the watch house, where they discovered they were both very much wounded; a surgeon dressed their wounds. They continued in the watch-house all night, and in the morning were conducted before the magistrate
.
                                                                                                                                                                  The Times, December 2nd 1817

(At their trial the following April, Duffin and Marshall were found not guilty of attempted murder. There was some suggestion that the sexton, now correctly named as Mr Leager, was himself up to no good. The case for assault was held over until August, when both men were sentenced to two years imprisonment.)


St. John's Churchyard,
Waterloo Bridge Road.
 
A tidy open space just south of Waterloo Bridge, a haunt of the homeless, displaced from other areas due to developments in the Waterloo area. 
An acre in size. This was laid out as a garden and playground in 1877, and is well kept up by the Lambeth Vestry .
(Holmes)




St. Mark's Churchyard, Kennington.
A Commissioners 'Waterloo' church, built 1822-4. The burial ground is on the site of a former execution ground, noted for the execution of Jacobites. Plain grass, with gravestones to the side. 

1¾ acres. This is closed and full of tombstones, but neatly kept. (Holmes)

Regent Street Baptist Chapel-ground, Kennington Road.

Lost. Chapel stood where Mary Lee Way runs along SE of school, about 300 ft from junction with Lollard St. (B.F.)
 A little ground at the back of the chapel, with a few tombstones and one great vault in it. (Holmes)
Esher Street Congregational Chapel-ground, Upper Kennington Lane. 
Now Aveline St. Chapel
. The surrounding ground is largely built on or is paved passageway. (B.F.)
About 480 square yards, closed, and very untidy. (Holmes)

St Matthew’s Churchyard, Brixton. 
Church built 1822-4.
There is a big memorial ( Poole ) outside the N entrance, but otherwise only one ordinary tomb left. On the N there is a fountain and the scooped-out entrance to crypt. This is now part of Brixton’s entertainment industry. On the S the churchyard flanking the church is laid out as a beer garden, with whimsical labels on the benches. Plant tubs and a procession of tall yews. The paths have street lighting.
(B.F.)

2. acres. This dates from 1824. It is closed, but neatly kept.
(Holmes)

Denmark Row Chapel-ground,  Coldharbour Lane. 
A bare yard to the R and a locked-off path to the L remain.
 This has been partly built upon. and there is now only a  small yard behind the chapel.
(Holmes)
Stockwell Green Congregational Chapel-ground. 
Chapel dates from 1798.
Now Islamic centre. The triangular burial-ground at the back remains behind a door. It is paved, and looks as if once built on.
¼ acre, or rather more. This is behind the chapel, and is a particularly neglected and untidy graveyard.
(Holmes)

St. Luke's Churchyard, Norwood

Church built 1822-5. Triangular ground cleared of monuments. 
1 acre. This dates from 1825. It is tidily kept, except the part near the station. The gate is generally open. The gravestones are in situ.
(Holmes)

Congregational Chapel-ground, Chapel Road, Lower Norwood.
 
Now a nursery school. The burial-ground is now a play area.
About ⅓ acre behind the chapel. It is closed, and has grass and a few tombstones in it.
(Holmes)
Norwood Cemetery
Place of reburial for many inner city graveyards.
  40 acres.- First used in 1838. Open daily, and fairly well kept. It is crowded with tombstones, and it includes a Greek cemetery and a burial-ground belonging to the parish of St. Mary at Hill, each about 550 square yards in size.
(Holmes)


Vault -    Lambeth Palace Chapel.


The London Necropolis Company, Westminster Bridge Rd.
Not a burial ground, but a portal to one; the picture shows the entrance to the Necropolis Station, in use up to the second world war. Funeral trains ran from here to Brookwood cemetery, in Surrey.

Possible church burials or vaults

St Mary the Less Black Prince Rd
Built 1827-8

St Michael's Stockwell Park Crescent
Built 1840-41

St Andrew's, Stockwell
Built 1767, rebuilt 1867. 

Holland Chapel, Brixton Rd
Built 1823 as an independent chapel. In 1835 it was sold, and became a proprietary Anglican chapel, eventually gaining a parish  with the  Christchurch dedication. Demolished 1899, rebuilt 1907.


St Mark's, Kennington
Built 1822 -24

Click here for a note on church and vault burials.