Background For hundreds of years, almost all London's dead were buried in small parish churchyards, which became dangerously overcrowded. Architects such as Sir
Christopher Wren and Sir
John Vanbrugh deplored this practice and wished to see suburban cemeteries established. It was not until British visitors to
Paris, including
George Frederick Carden, were inspired by its
Père Lachaise cemetery that sufficient time and money were devoted to canvass for reform, and equivalents were developed in London, firstly at
Kensal Green. In the first 50 years of the 19th century, the population of London more than doubled, from 1 million to 2.3 million. Overcrowded graveyards also led to decaying matter getting into the water supply and causing
epidemics. There were incidents of graves being dug on unmarked plots that already contained bodies, and of bodies being defiled by
sewer rats infiltrating the churchyards' drains from the relatively central
Tyburn,
Fleet,
Effra and
Westbourne rivers which were used as foul sewers by this date and later wholly discharged into
London's outfall sewers.
Establishment In 1832, Parliament passed an
act encouraging the establishment of private cemeteries outside central London. Over the next decade seven cemeteries were established, at least four of which were consecrated by
Charles James Blomfield,
Bishop of London. The
Burial Act 1852 (
15 & 16 Vict. c. 85) section 9 required new burial grounds in a list of urban parishes of London (the Metropolis) to be approved by the
Secretary of State. Sections 1 and 44 enabled the Secretary of State to close metropolitan London churchyards to new interments and make regulations regarding proper burial. The expenses for establishing burial boards to accommodate these changes were ordered to come from the poor rates under section 19. Sections 26 and 28 of that act enabled parish Burial Boards (with
vestry approval) to purchase land anywhere and to appropriate land belonging to the relevant parish, poor board or any of its charitable trusts. For a time following the establishment of the cemeteries, it became a semi-established custom for visitors to the cemeteries to
picnic among the graves; their suburban locations made them especially popular. ==List==