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. 

'Dick Whittington's Cat' statue and the 'Whittington Stone'

On Highgate Hill there is a stone with a statue of a cat, protected behind an iron cage.

This is the Whittington Stone and Dick Whittington's Cat.

The Whittington Stone

The Whittington Stone is a large two-segment Portland Stone tablet, erected in 1821, and marks, roughly, where Dick Whittington supposedly turned at the sound of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow.

The stone was restored in 1935.

The Cat statue was added in 1964 and was designed by Jonathan Kenworthy and is made of Kellymount limestone. It was originally polished-black.

On its two faces are inscriptions of the life of Dick Whittington. The inscription on one side has been completely eroded, but some of the inscription can still be read on the other face.

Dick Whittington and His Cat

Dick Whittington and His Cat is an English folklore telling the rise of poverty-stricken Dick Whittington, who sold his cat to a rat infested country, to attain a fortune.

Another story tells of his heading home to Highgate Hill, but stopping when he heard the sound of Bow Bells, some 4.5 miles away, promising him that he would be mayor of London, one day.