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Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Putney Vale Cemetery
Mood:
 amorous
Topic: Putney Vale Cemetery
At last I've managed to get round to publishing our Putney Vale Cemetery photo's. Unfortunately the weather conditions at the time were less then favorable so I'm not very happy with the results. Maybe one day I'll get back there when the weather is more suitable for photography. 
Til next time, take care, Neil
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Posted by Neil Bartlett DHyp M.A.E.P.H
at 1:43 PM GMT
Saturday, 9 August 2008
9th August 2008
Mood:
 accident prone
Topic: Putney Vale Cemetery
It's the half way point in the kids summer holiday and to celebrate I decided on a trip to Putney Vale Cemetery. This part of the year is my least favourite, a little sunshine and everyone seems to take leave of their senses. 
For example, I've never understood the concept of a garden barbeque. The hottest day of the year and it seems that half the population are busy producing salmonella burgers in a cloud of putrid smoke. Why on a blazing hot day do people insist on setting fire to a pile of charcoal, heating it until it's glowing red and then complaining that their too hot and "we need a good storm to clear the air".
Anyway as you can probably tell, since my last blog life has been a little challenging. My wife's Grandmother finally passed over after a long battle with cancer and we have spent countless hours at our local cancer clinic with my wife being subjected to every intrusive test known to mankind. 
Thankfully everything is going in our favour and I would like to thank all the dedicated Doctors and Nurses who do a fantastic job in very difficult circumstances (caused by the NHS and that twat Gordon Brown).
Taking a chance on the weather we got an early start and after one train two tubes and a half hour bus ride we arrived at Putney Vale Cemetery in South London. Within ten minutes of our arrival the light faded and the heavens opened forcing us to take shelter under a gazebo type structure adjacent to the Chapels/Crematorium. 
The morning followed the pattern of showers every 10 minutes or so and most of the photo's were taken from the shelter of two umbrellas kindly held by my wife and son.
The older area of Putney Vale Cemetery which is to the rear of the Chapels is home to some wonderful monuments and a lovely Egyptian style Mausoleum. The rest of the Cemetery is a little bland with modern style headstones set out in symmetrical rows. The only exceptions are the unusual (for the UK) above ground vaults which stand in blocks of five vaults wide by three high, and appear to be very under occupied. The other nice feature of the Cemetery is the walled memorial garden for the interment of cremains. With two impressive (albeit not functional at the time of our visit) water features and some well thought out planting this made for a very pleasant and tranquil area for reflection. 
I'll go into more detail when the photo's are uploaded but Putney Vale is home to it's fair share of famous persons including the "Carry On" actress Hattie Jacques and F1 driver James Hunt. I arrived armed with a list of names to look out for but unfortunately apart from one we failed to spot the graves or memorials of the remainder.
By 12.30pm we had pretty much finished and decided to catch the bus back to Putney Bridge tube station where we had planned to make our way to Covent Garden and the London Transport Museum. Thankfully our decision turned out to be a wise one as the clouds couldn't control themselves any longer and the rain lashed down for the next few hours. 
Unfortunately the Transport Museum turned out to be a disappointment and certainly not worth the £10 per adult admission. If you are interested in trains then the National Railway Museum in York is the place to go, and it's free. Next we headed back to South Kensington and had a wander around the Science Museum (which is also free) and a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. Before boarding the tube back to Kings Cross we took a walk down the road to have a look at the Royal Albert Hall. Considering the amount of time I've spent in London it's surprising that I can't ever remember seeing this impressive piece of Victorian Architecture. Unbeknown to me they hold regular tours of the hall and it's something I shall keep in mind for a future trip. Just across the road from the RAH is Hyde park and the amazing Albert Memorial which towered impressively into the gloomy London sky. 
By the end of the day luck appeared to be on our side. Within minutes of arriving at Kings Cross by tube the underground station was closed and swamped with police and fire-fighters. To the sound of the emergency alarms going off everywhere we tried hard to find out what was going on. The Police said "a small incident, nothing to worry about", station staff said "flooding on the Northern Line" and the announcer on the loud halo system said "due to extreme overcrowding the station is now closed". We never did get to the bottom of it, even back at home I could find no reference to the situation even on the TFL website.
Thankfully, despite the rain, the photo's didn't turn out too bad. Even so, I strongly suspect that it won't be far off Christmas by the time I get round to uploading them to the site. That also means another school holiday to contend with, wish me luck I still have three weeks of this one to deal with.
See you again soon!
Posted by Neil Bartlett DHyp M.A.E.P.H
at 11:24 AM BST
Updated: Monday, 3 November 2008 11:40 AM GMT
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