Over the last few years I’ve been ‘collecting’ Victorian London
cemeteries – specifically the ‘magnificent seven’ which were
given the name by historian Hugh Meller in 1981. These large
cemeteries were built over a relatively short period in order to
alleviate the pressure on inner London graveyards, which could
no longer cope with the number of burials required. The last
place to visit on the list is Kensal Green Cemetery in West
London which, ironically, was the first to be built in 1832.
Amongst the famous Victorians to be buried here are the Brunels,
mathematician Charles Babbage and Sir William Beatty, the
transvestite Royal Navy surgeon who served under Admiral Lord
Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. There are many fine
memorials, a beautiful Greek-style chapel at the centre of the
cemetery and several large mausoleums, with the strangest
structure being a long colonnade that sits along one edge of the
site, now topped by shops and residential properties. I wonder
whether the people living there are awa