Nunhead Cemetery is situated 4 miles south of London city center. Consecrated in 1840 the cemetery occupies 52 acres which rises to 200 feet above sea level at it's highest point. From here it offers extensive views over the city of London and St Paul Cathedral.
 
Perhaps the most striking feature of the cemetery is the imposing Gothic chapel which towers over the underground crypt, the refurbishment of which was featured in the Channel 4 program "Changing Tombs".
 
Unfortunately Nunhead fell victim to the 2nd World War which resulted in irreparable bomb damage to the small Nonconformist Mortuary Chapel. As a result it was finally demolished in the early 1950's. The Crypt at the time was home to only four coffins which were transferred before demolition to the larger Crypt under the Anglican Chapel.
 
Nunhead contains many examples of magnificent monuments erected in memory of the most eminent citizens of the day. These contrast strongly with the small, simple headstones marking common or public burials. It's formal avenue of towering limes and the Gothic gloom of the original Victorian planting gives way to paths which recall the country lanes of a bygone era.

Nunhead Crypt Audio Tour

Nunhead Cemetery
Linden Grove
London
SE15 3LP

Nunhead Cemetery Indepth

Nunhead Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries, located in the Borough of Southwark in London. It is perhaps the least famous and celebrated of them. Originally known as 'All Saints' Cemetery', it was opened in 1840 by the London Cemetery Company.
 
The lodges and monumental entrance were designed by James Bunstone Bunning.
 
Notable Nunhead graves include:
 
Frederick Augustus Abel - cordite co-inventor
 
Charles Abbott - the 101 year old Ipswich Grocer and Charterhouse brother
 
Alfred Vance - English Music hall performer
 
Jenny Hill - another Music hall performer
 
There is also an obelisk, the 'Scottish Political Martyrs Memorial', dedicated to the leaders of the Friends of the People Society, including Thomas Muir, Maurice Margarot, and Thomas Fyshe Palmer, who were transported to Australia in 1794. The monument was erected by radical M.P. Joseph Hume in 1837.
 
The cemetery is the setting for the Victorian poet Charlotte Mew's exploration of death, insanity and social alienation "In Nunhead Cemetery" and is the setting for Maurice Riordan's final poem, "The January Birds" in his 2007 collection, The Holy Land.
 
The Woman Between the Worlds, a 1994 science-fiction novel by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre set in Victorian England, depicts a funeral at Nunhead Cemetery in 1898 for the burial (in a closed coffin) of a female extra-terrestrial. The novel intentionally avoids citing a precise location in Nunhead for this grave, in case some reader mistakenly believes that genuine alien remains can be retrieved from the site.