History
Before the Victorian Era, all of London's dead were buried in small urban churchyards, which were so overcrowded and so close to where people lived, worked and worshipped that they were causing disease and ground water contamination.
An Act of Parliament was passed which allowed joint-stock companies to purchase land and set up large cemeteries outside the boundaries of the City of London. There were seven great cemeteries (the "Magnificent Seven") laid out about the same time (1832-1841). Highgate Cemetery, where lots of famous dignitaries are buried, is the most well known: the others are Nunhead, West Norwood, Kensal Green, Brompton, Abney Park.
The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Company was made up of eleven wealthy directors whose occupations reflect the industries of the day: corn merchant, merchant ship broker and ship owner, timber merchant, and Lord Mayor of the City of London. The company bought 27 acres (109,265 m2) of land and the cemetery was divided into a consecrated part for Anglican burials and an unconsecrated part for all other denominations.
Tower Hamlets Cemetery was very popular with people from the East End and by 1889 247,000 bodies had been interred (The cemetery remained open for another 77 years). In the first two years 60% of the burials were in public graves (i.e. those of poor people who could not afford a funeral) and by 1851 this had increased to 80%. Public graves 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. There are stories of some graves being dug 40 feet deep and containing 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; both cemetery chapels were damaged and 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 (G.L.C.) bought the company for £100,000 under the G.L.C.(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 (2,752 m2) of graves. Strong local opposition and problems of funding stopped the clearance.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets took over its ownership in 1986. It was declared a Local Nature Reserve in May 2000 along with adjacent open land on Cantrell Road and Ackroyd Drive. It is also been designated as Metropolitan Open Land and a Conservation area. The high brick walls which surround it are on the national register of listed buildings as are 16 individual memorials.
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