This 16-acre cemetery in Hammersmith was opened in 1869 after a cholera outbreak and ultimately received 83,000 local residents before its designation as a Garden of Rest in 1951. Although being adjacent to Baron’s Court Tube station it remains a pleasant, secluded green space surrounded by Victorian housing. It is the permanent final home of a favourite model of the Pre-Raphaelites, the man who cast Eros in Piccadilly Circus, the builder of the White City, a pioneer mechanical copyist and a proto-feminist campaigner.

Six of the graves are listed, including a mausoleum, but the cemetery’s unique pride is the Reception House. This attractive octagonal building was the only response to the call in the Metropolitan Interments Act of 1850 for such houses of the dead to alleviate the 20,000 poor families living in single rooms in London who had no place to store their dead. When this dusty building was re-opened a few years ago it was found to contain two sets of original funeral biers and trestles resting on the five stone coffin shelves. Its rarity led to it being Grade II listed in 2016 and special access has been granted for us.

Tickets £12. Please click here to purchase.

ROBERT STEPHENSON
Robert Stephenson is a qualified City of London Culture and Heritage guide and a trustee at Kensal Green and Brompton cemeteries. He teaches on London and death studies. Robert is also chairman of the National Federation of Cemetery Friends.