CHAPTER 18: ADDITIONAL BURIAL GROUNDS

CLXXX—St. Pancras Gardens (formerly the Churchyard of Old St. Pancras Church)

The original churchyard of Old St. Pancras Church was first enlarged in 1727, when the vicar, the Rev. Edward de Chair presented an adjoining piece of land called the Pindle, which was fenced at the charge of the parish and consecrated. A further enlargement took place in 1792, when with the consent of Parliament, some two acres to the north of the churchyard were acquired and the pathway across the churchyard was closed to allow of the building of the sexton's house. From 1863 and onwards the Midland Railway obtained powers to build over this northern part of the churchyard, and the remains of those buried there were removed and re-interred. At this time the churchyard was sadly neglected and a number of fine monuments, including that erected by Viscount Montague to the Hon. Mary Browne, were falling to pieces. In 1875 the Vestry of St. Pancras secured an Act of Parliament authorizing them to take control of the churchyard and the adjoining burial ground of St. Giles and to preserve them as open spaces. (ref. 39) Mr. F. T. Cansick (fn. a) was employed to copy all the inscriptions then visible and the grounds were opened to the public on 28th June, 1877, at a ceremony presided over by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James McGarel-Hogg, Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works.

The memorials in the Old Church have already been given in Survey of London, Vol. XIX. Reference should have been made in the account of the Manor House of Tottenhall (ibid.) to the fact that two of the families that occupied the manor house are represented, namely Daniel Clarke (1626) and his wife Katherine (1613) and his predecessor Alexander Glover, in the person of his daughter Mary (1588) who married John Beresford. A large number of notable persons were buried in the churchyard and below is a selected list of names up to the year 1800. The full incriptions will be found in F. T. Cansick's Epitaphs of St. Pancras, where will also be found the names of a large number of French refugees, many of noble family, who were interred here, but who have been omitted from the list below.

CLXXXI—St. Giles' Burial Ground

This burial ground, now part of St. Pancras Gardens, was acquired by the parish of St. Giles under parliamentary powers obtained in 1802. It lay north of the churchyard of the Old Church, between it and the parish workhouse further north, and was behind a row of houses in Pancras Road called Cook's Terrace and Eve Terrace, at the south end of which stood the Adam and Eve Public House. A cemetery chapel was built in the centre of the entrance from Pancras Road between the two terraces. These buildings were all removed when St. Pancras Gardens were laid out in 1877. (ref. 39)

Among the burials here the most notable are:

CLXXXII—Highgate Cemetery

This cemetery was opened in 1839 by the London Cemetery Company which had been incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1836. Stephen Geary, architect, a founder of the company, designed Highgate Cemetery and was buried there in 1854.

The original ground comprised 20 acres on the west side of Swain's Lane, on the upper slope of the hill on which Highgate stands, and a site of great beauty. The cemetery has since been enlarged by grounds lower down the hill, on the east side of Swain's Lane. The entrance to the western cemetery is entered by an archway between the chapel and the porter's lodge, forming a group of buildings of Gothic design. A feature of the grounds is the Egyptian Avenue, 100 feet in length, sunk in the ground with tomb chambers on both sides, and these are continued round a circular road higher up the hill. Steps lead up to the summit where further ranges of catacombs, of Gothic character, have been placed below a terrace that commands a fine view of London.

Many famous people are buried here, among them Michael Faraday, Herbert Spencer, "George Eliot," Christina Rossetti, Sir William Ross, Mrs. Henry J. Wood, G. R. Sims, Carl Rosa, Karl Marx, Frederick Lillywhite, the cricketer, Tom Sayers, the pugilist, and George Wombwell of menagerie fame.

Mr. F. T. Cansick has transcribed and published 188 pages of the inscriptions in Highgate Cemetery in his second volume of Epitaphs of St. Pancras.

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