Nunhead Cemetery (All Saints' Cemetery)

All Saints' Cemetery opened 1840, in the London Borough of Southwark, and was the sixth of the eight private garden cemeteries to open.

Built on a hill, with views over London, it was designed by architect James Bunstone Bunning, who had replaced Stephen Geary.

In 1976 it was purchased after it was allowed to fall into neglect by its owners United Cemeteries Limited, who were looking to build on some of the land.

It is still in operation.

Nunhead Cemetery is perhaps the least known of the Victorian Garden Cemeteries of London. Consecrated in 1840, it is one of the magnificent eight garden cemeteries established in a ring around what was the outskirts of London.

Magnificent monuments, erected in memory of the most eminent citizens of the day, contrast starkly with the small, simple headstones marking common, or public, burials. 

Nunhead Cemetery is the second largest of the garden cemeteries, covering 52 acres, and is one of two south of the River Thames. The other being West Norwood Cemetery.

When the cemetery first opened it had two chapels, which were simple timber-framed buildings. These were replaced with permanent buildings in 1844. One, an Anglican Chapel the other a Dissenter's Chapel. The chapels were designed by Thomas Little.

The Anglican Chapel was designed in the Gothic style and was built using Kentish ragstone, Bath stone, Portland stone and Caen stone, imported from Normandy.

Nunhead Cemetery is the resting place of over 1,000 War Graves, from both World Wars, split between various plots and individual graves. 

Notable graves and memorials

• Sir Frederick Abel - Co-inventor of Cordite
• Robert Abel - English cricketer
• George John Bennett - English Shakespearean actor
• William Brough - playwright and writer
• Bryan Donkin - Engineer who created the food-canning process
• Vincent Figgins - Typefounder
• Sir Charles Fox - Civil and railway engineer
• Jenny Hill - Music Hall performer
  
• Henry Jupp - English cricketer
• Sir Polydore de Keyser - Lord Mayor of London
• Sir George Livesey - Engineer, industrialist and philanthropist
• Charles Frederick Williams - Journalist, writer and war correspondent 

Timeline

• 1840 - All Saints' Cemetery is opened
• 1840 - Charles Abbott, of Ipswich, is the first burial. He was 101
• 1844 - Two stone chapels are built to replace the wooden ones
• 1867 - Remains from St Christopher le Stocks, in the City of London, are reinterred here
• 1914 - The Scouts Memorial is unveiled
• 1933 - More remains from St Christopher le Stocks, in the City of London, are reinterred
• 1940s - The Dissenter's Chapel is destroyed during a bombing raid
• 1950s - The United Cemetery Company abandons the site, which is nearly full
• 1969 - The Scouts Memorial statue is stolen
• 1970s - The Anglican Chapel is damaged in an arson attack
• 1980s - The 'Friends of Nunhead Cemetery' is formed
• 1992 - A new Carrara marble 'open book' memorial is installed at the Scouts Memorial
• 2001 - The cemetery is reopened

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