Funeral Service Times August 2017 April 2019 | Page 28

28 CEMETERIES AROUND THE WORLD
were the property of the company and were
used to bury those whose families could
not afford to buy a plot. Several persons,
entirely unrelated to each other, could be
buried in the same grave within the space of
a few weeks. Allegedly some graves were
dug 40 feet deep and contained up to 30
bodies.
The cemetery itself did not remain in a
tidy and elegant state for long. Only 55 years
after it was opened it was reported to be in
a neglected state. During the Second World
War, the cemetery was bombed five times
during raids on the City of London, and both
cemetery chapels were damaged, shrapnel
damage can be seen on the graves by the
1994 Soanes Centre in the north west corner
of the park. Burials continued taking place
until 1966, when the Greater London Council
(GLC) bought the company for £100,000
under the GLC General Powers Act and the
ground was closed for burials. The intention
was to create an open space for the public
and relevant parts of the cemetery were
freed from the effects of consecration.
In October 1967, a further £125,000 was
spent clearing the chapels and 0.68 acres
of graves, strong local opposition and
problems of funding stopped the clearance.
Tower Hamlets London Borough Council
took over the ownership of the park in 1986.
It was declared a Local Nature Reserve in
APRIL 2019
May 2000 along with adjacent open land
on Cantrell Road and Ackroyd Drive, the
cemetery has also been designated as a
Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature
Conservation and a conservation area. The
high brick walls which surround it are on
the national register of listed buildings as are
seven individual memorials, all of the listed
locations are Grade II.
The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery
Park (FOTHCP) is a group of locals who
came together in 1990 because they
were concerned over increasing neglect
by successive owners. The group’s main
objectives are to encourage greater use of
this inner urban green space as a sanctuary
for people and a place of biodiversity. The
‘friends’ manage the park under a service-
level agreement with the borough.
The park has been designated a Local
Nature Reserve, with the cemetery now
resembling natural woodland, many bird
and insect species currently make it their
home, although there is still a large amount
of gravestones and funerary monuments.
A leaflet produced by the ‘friends’ acts as a
guide to show visitors around the reserve,
highlighting some of the more notable
graves.
There are 279 Commonwealth service
personnel of both World Wars buried at
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, the names
of all being listed on bronze panels on a
screen wall memorial near the entrance
on Southern Grove. Nine British merchant
seamen are buried here who were killed
when their ship, SS Bennevis, was hit by a
high explosive bomb on 7 September 1940,
while berthed in the West India Docks
during an air raid in World War II.
Significant people buried in the cemetery
include some victims of the Bethnal Green
Disaster which happened as thousands took
shelter during the Blitz, Charlie Brown, the
owner of the historic Railway Tavern pub,
who has a roundabout named after him in
the area, and ‘The Bundle Woman of Bow’
Clara Grant OBE. War memorials include
one dedicated to those who died during
the Blitz made from bricks from damaged
properties damaged, and a general war
memorial located near the Southern Grove
entrance.
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