St Pancras and Islington Cemetery is a cemetery in East Finchley, North London. Although it is situated in the London Borough of Barnet, it is run as two cemeteries, owned by two other London Boroughs, Camden (formerly St Pancras) and Islington. The fence along the boundary which runs west to east between the two parts of the cemetery has been removed, although the line of it is still marked.
The cemetery was the first publicly-owned cemetery in London.[2][1]
Cemetery
Headstone from the eastern boundaryWooden crossesMond mausoleumIslington and St Pancras Cemetery site map
Origin and development
St Pancras and Islington, located in Finchley, is one of London's historically most interesting cemeteries. Following the Metropolitan Burials Act 1852 and later acts which were designed to alleviate serious health and other problems caused by overcrowded burial grounds and lack of management and accountability, the cemetery was established in 1854 as the first municipally owned cemetery in London when the St Pancras Burial Board bought 88 acres (360,000 m2) of the former Horseshoe Farm on Finchley Common. A further 94 acres (380,000 m2) were acquired in 1877 and the total area was divided between Islington and Camden, the former having two areas to the north-west and east, the latter having the remainder. A bank and ditch along the eastern edge marks the parish boundary between Finchley and Hornsey. The cemetery is bordered to the south by the ancient woodland of Coldfall Wood, to the north by the North Circular road, and to the west by the A1000 Great North Road.
The cemetery contains several chapels and a large crematorium built by Albert Freeman in 1937.
Chapels
The St Pancras Anglican chapel (listed grade II) lies at the centre of the semicircular drive which links the entrance and exit to the cemetery, c 250m north-east of the entrance. It was built in 1853 by John Barnett and William C. Birch in a cruciform design, with decorated windows in Gothic style and a central octagonal crossing tower and spire. It was used by both St Pancras and Islington until 1896, when the Islington chapel was built.
The Nonconformist chapel was built in the early 1850s by Barnett and Birch and had a six-sided lantern. It was demolished in the 20th century.
The St Pancras Roman Catholic chapel (1896; now demolished) lay on the north side of Roman Road (c 540m north-east of the Islington Anglican chapel), and was in a simple Gothic style. Many of the tombs in the Roman Catholic section are decorated with angels and there are several interesting tombs, including the Melesi Mausoleum of 1914, for an early victim of a car accident.
War graves
St Pancras Cemetery has a war graves plot containing over 100 graves from both world wars, together with a number of headstones retrieved from graves that were scattered elsewhere in the cemetery and could not be maintained. A memorial bears the names of 27 casualties whose graves could not be marked individually, and of six First World War casualties buried in the adjacent Islington Cemetery who could not be commemorated there. In total 299 First World War Commonwealth service casualties – including one unidentified Royal Navy sailor – and 207 Second World War casualties are commemorated or buried here.[3] The Victoria Cross recipient John Ross is buried here.[citation needed]
Islington Cemetery contains the graves of 334 Commonwealth service personnel of the First and 265 of the Second World War, which are all scattered throughout the cemetery. A Screen Wall memorial in the western part of the cemetery lists names of those buried here whose graves could not be individually marked by headstones, together with those of two servicemen of the Second World War who were cremated at Islington Crematorium. Six soldiers buried in this cemetery whose graves could not be located are alternatively commemorated on stones in St Pancras Cemetery (above).[4]
There is a memorial for William French who died on 13 July 1896 while saving a dog from drowning in one of the Highgate Ponds in North London. The monument was paid for by public subscription.[citation needed]
Silas Hocking, prolific Victorian author. Writer of the million-selling novel Her Benny.
Ben Kinsella, half-brother of actress Brooke Kinsella who was stabbed to death in 2008. His murder prompted changes in approaches towards sentencing for knife crime in Britain.
John Baptista De Manio, aviation pioneer, died whilst flying at Lisbon, 13 June 1913, aged 39 years.
Manzi monument by Francesco Nagni: Two bronze angels rising from the grave lifting a man in a neatly buttoned shirt
John Mayer, classical violinist and Indo-jazz fusion pioneer composer and bandleader.
James Hurst Stead Well known Vaudeville artist of the mid 1800s singer of comedic songs, most notably 'The Perfect Cure' during which he would jump on the spot up to 400 times.
The London Ecology Unit has advised the owners on management aimed to conserve natural features, whilst recognising the primary use of the cemetery as a burial ground. In recent years, the managers have permitted natural growth on areas not actively used for burials. The result was a proliferation of natural wildlife, as former burial plots became diverse scrub and secondary woodland.[8]
Holly and bramble woodland flora grows beneath the trees and alongside paths, including bluebells, pignut, goldilocks buttercup, cuckoo flower, bugle, and wild strawberry. These have spread from the adjacent woodland, or survived from the cemetery's prior existence as Horseshoe Farm.
