Bunhill Fields
Bunhill Fields is a former burial ground in central London, in the London Borough of Islington, just north of the City of London. What remains is about in extent and the bulk of the site is a public garden maintained by the City of London Corporation.
It was first in devoted use as a burial ground from 1665 until 1854, in which period approximately 123,000 interments were estimated to have taken place. Over 2,000 monuments remain, for the most part in concentrated blocks. It was a prototype of land-use protected, nondenominational grounds, and was particularly favoured by nonconformists who passed their final years in the region. It contains the graves of many notable people, including John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress; Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe; William Blake, artist, poet, and mystic; Susanna Wesley, known as the "Mother of Methodism" through her education of sons John and Charles; Thomas Bayes, statistician and philosopher; Isaac Watts, the "Father of English Hymnody"; and Thomas Newcomen, steam engine pioneer.
Bunhill Fields Burial Ground is listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It is now maintained by the Friends of City Gardens.
Nearby, on the west side of Bunhill Row and behind the residential tower Braithwaite House, is a former Quaker burial ground, in use from 1661 to 1855, at times also known as Bunhill Fields. George Fox, one of the founders of the movement, is among those buried there. Its remains are also a public garden, Quaker Gardens, managed by the London Borough of Islington.
Historical background
Bunhill Fields was part of the Manor of Finsbury, which has its origins as the prebend of Halliwell and Finsbury, belonging to St Paul's Cathedral and established in 1104. In 1315 the prebendary manor was granted by Archdeacon Robert Baldock to the Mayor and Commonalty of London. This enabled more general public access to the semi-fen or moor stretching from the City of London's boundary, to the village of Hoxton.In 1498 part of the otherwise unenclosed landscape was set aside to form a large field for military exercises of archers and others. This part of the manor has sports and occasional military use: Artillery Ground.
Next to this lies Bunhill Fields. The name derives from "Bone hill", likely linked to occasional burials from at least Saxon times, but more probably derives from the use for mass-deposit for human bones—amounting to over 1,000 cartloads—brought from St Paul's charnel house in 1549. The dried bones were deposited on the moor and capped with a thin layer of soil. This built up a hill across the otherwise damp, flat fens, such that three windmills could safely be erected in a spot that came to be one of the many windmill hills.
Opening as a burial ground
In keeping with this tradition, in 1665 the City of London Corporation decided to use some of the land as a common burial ground for the interment of bodies of inhabitants who had died of the plague and could not be accommodated in the churchyards. Outer walls were completed but Church of England officials never consecrated the ground nor used it for burials. A Mr. Tindal took over the lease.He allowed extramural graveyard burials in what was unconsecrated soil, thus popular with nonconformists—those Protestant Christians who practised their faiths outside the Church of England; unlike Anglican churchyards it was open for interment to anyone who could afford the fees. It appears on Rocque's Map of London of 1746, and elsewhere, as "Tindal's Burying Ground".
An inscription at the eastern entrance gate to the burial ground reads:
The present gates and inscription date from 1868, but the wording follows that of an original 17th-century inscription at the western entrance, now lost.
The earliest recorded monumental inscription was that to "Grace, daughter of T. Cloudesly, of Leeds. February 1666". The earliest surviving monument is believed to be the headstone to Theophilus Gale: the inscription reads "Theophilus Gale MA / Born 1628 / Died 1678".
In 1769 an act of Parliament, the , gave the corporation the right to continue the lease for 99 years. The City authorities continued to let the ground to their tenant as a burial ground; in 1781 the corporation decided to take over management of the burial ground.
So many historically important Protestant nonconformists chose this as their place of interment that the 19th-century poet and writer Robert Southey characterised Bunhill Fields in 1830 as the ground "which the Dissenters regard as their Campo Santo". This term was applied to its "daughter", Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.
Closure as a burial ground
The Burial Act 1852 was passed which enabled grounds to be closed once they became full. An Order for Closure for Bunhill Fields was made in December 1853, and the final burial took place on 5 January 1854. Occasional interments continued to be permitted in existing vaults or graves: the final burial of this kind is believed to have been that of a Mrs. Gabriel of Brixton in February 1860. By this date approximately 123,000 interments had taken place in the burial ground.Two decades before, a group of City nonconformists led by George Collison bought a site for a new landscaped alternative, at part of Abney Park in Stoke Newington. This was named Abney Park Cemetery and opened in 1840. All parts were available for the burial of any person, regardless of religious creed. It preceded Brookwood Cemetery as the prototype of many cemeteries to come nationally with "no invidious dividing lines". It has a unique nondenominational chapel, designed by William Hosking.
Community garden
Upon closure of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, its future was uncertain as its lessee, the City of London Corporation, was close to expiry of its lease, scheduled for Christmas 1867. To prevent the land from being redeveloped by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at this expiry, the Corporation formed the Special Bunhill Fields Burial Ground Committee in 1865. This became formally known as the Bunhill Fields Preservation Committee.Appointed by the corporation, it consisted of twelve advisors under the chairmanship of Charles Reed, FSA. He later rose to prominence as the first Member of Parliament for Hackney and chairman of the first School Board for London before being knighted. Along with his interest in making it into a parkland landscape, he was similarly interested in the wider educational and public benefits of Abney Park Cemetery, of which he was a prominent director.
To corroborate the committee's work, the corporation obtained an act of Parliament, the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground Act 1867, "for the Preservation of Bunhill Fields Burial Ground ... as an open space". The legislation enabled them to continue to maintain the site when possession would have otherwise reverted to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, provided it was laid out as a public open space with seating, gardens, and some of its most worthy monuments were restored. The improvements, which included the laying out of walks and paths, cost an estimated £3,500. The new park was opened by the Lord Mayor, James Clarke Lawrence, on 14 October 1869.
The ground was severely damaged by German bombing during World War II; it is believed to have hosted an anti-aircraft gun during the Blitz. In the 1950s, after some debate, the City ordered: to clear the northern third of the site of most of its monuments to open it as a public garden; and to preserve and protect the rest behind railings. Legislation in 1960 gave the freehold to the city, which continues to maintain the grounds. Landscaping was designed and overseen by the architect and landscape architect Peter Shepheard in 1964–65.