under the metropolitan burial act of 1852, which followed the second cholera epidemic of 1848-49, the streatham burial board acquired the land for a cemetery in what was countryside at the time. the cemetery opened for burials in 1894 and was provided with two lodges and two mirror-image chapels built in the gothic style by william newton dunn. the cemetery was subjected to extensive "lawn conversion" from 1969 to 1991 and many monuments were removed. no new graves are available in the cemetery but burial in existing family plots is allowed.