Lambeth Cemetery is a cemetery in

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre-Saxon times. Th ...

, in the

London Borough of Wandsworth Wandsworth () is a London borough in southwest London; it forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main named areas are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth Town. The borough border ...

. It is one of three cemeteries owned by

Lambeth London Borough Council Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town ...

, the others being

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of ...

and

Streatham Cemetery Streatham Cemetery is a cemetery on Garratt Lane in Tooting, London; it is one of three cemeteries managed by Lambeth London Borough Council, the others being West Norwood Cemetery and Lambeth Cemetery. Both Streatham and Lambeth Cemeteries ar ...

History

Like nearby

, Lambeth Cemetery was developed by a parish burial board in 1854 following the Metropolitan Burial Act of 1852, which was a response to the second

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

epidemic of 1848–49. The cemetery is laid out as a rectangular grid of paths, has a few trees and is sited just east of the

River Wandle The River Wandle is a right-bank tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. With a total length of about , the river passes through the London boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth, where it reaches the Thames. A sho ...

in what was countryside in the 1850s and was largely to remain so for some decades. There are two lodges beside the main gate in Blackshaw Road and a memorial chapel, all built in brick in a Gothic style and designed by F. K. Wehnert and J. Ashdown. The cemetery was extended to the south in 1874 when Robert Taylor was chairman of Lambeth Burial Board, and Hugh Mcintosh was the surveyor who laid out the extension. There is a

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...

and Garden of Remembrance opened in May 1969 in of gardens at the northern end. Another noteworthy feature is the screen wall memorial, in the south-west corner of the cemetery, unveiled in 1953 for both First and

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Commonwealth service personnel whose graves could not be marked by

CWGC The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...

headstones. There are 217 Commonwealth war graves from the First and 145 from the Second World War, besides one Belgian war grave and 29 British non-world-war service graves.
CWGC Cemetery Report.

Interments and current use

Lambeth Cemetery is said to contain 250,000 burials and was associated with Victorian era, Victorian

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Br ...

artists, including the comedians

Dan Leno George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall a ...

Stanley Lupino Stanley Richard Lupino Hook (15 June 1893 – 10 June 1942), known professionally as Stanley Lupino, was an English actor, dancer, singer, librettist, director and short story writer. During the 1930s, Lupino appeared in a successful series of m ...

and

Charles Chaplin Sr Charles Spencer Chaplin Sr. (18 March 1863 – 9 May 1901) was an English music hall entertainer. He achieved considerable success in the 1890s, and was the father of the actor and filmmaker Sir Charlie Chaplin. Early years Chaplin was born o ...

. Between 1969 and 1991 it was subject to "lawn conversion", and today has a layout of straight paths dotted with trees. The cemetery features predominantly modern, late-20th-century gravestones, many of which have been staked to stop them falling over, with occasional 19th-century gravestones and monuments. The cemetery is visited by green woodpeckers and sparrowhawks and the site is predominantly neutral grassland.Th
wildlife value of Lambeth Cemetery
The Garden of Remembrance near the Crematorium is maintained as mown grass parkland.

References

Notes Bibliography

External links

{{coord , 51, 25, 40, N, 0, 10, 52, W, type:landmark_scale:3000_region:GB, display=title Cemeteries in London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Wandsworth 1852 establishments in England Anglican cemeteries in the United Kingdom Burials at Lambeth Cemetery