Now I have been wandering through Nunhead Cemetery with the help of a set of pictures taken by Adrian Parfitt, and decided to close with this one which I have to confess is a bit of a cheat.
It was taken 180 miles north of Nunhead in Southern Cemetery which was opened a full 39 years after Nunhead and is now the largest municipal cemetery in the country.
But like Nunhead it was part of that Victorian drive to apply rationality and uniformity to all things including the burial of the dead.
The centuries old practice of interring the dead close to the living in city centres was regarded as unhealthy and I suspect all too messy for many Victorians, added to which many of these small ancient burial grounds were all but full.
And Southern Cemetery continues to do the business of tending to the dead.
Picture; Southern Cemetery, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
It was taken 180 miles north of Nunhead in Southern Cemetery which was opened a full 39 years after Nunhead and is now the largest municipal cemetery in the country.
But like Nunhead it was part of that Victorian drive to apply rationality and uniformity to all things including the burial of the dead.
The centuries old practice of interring the dead close to the living in city centres was regarded as unhealthy and I suspect all too messy for many Victorians, added to which many of these small ancient burial grounds were all but full.
And Southern Cemetery continues to do the business of tending to the dead.
Picture; Southern Cemetery, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
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