East Finchley Cemetery
East Finchley Cemetery is a cemetery and crematorium in East End Road, East Finchley. Although it is in the London Borough of Barnet, it is owned and managed by the City of Westminster.
History and characteristics
The St Marylebone Burial Board purchased of Newmarket Farm in 1854; and the cemetery, then known as St Marylebone Cemetery, was laid out by architects Barnett & Birch after winning a competition.Principal features are two Lebanon Cedar trees planted on the front lawn. The crematorium was opened in 1937.
Due to local government reorganisation, the cemetery was managed by the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone – from 1900; and became the responsibility of the City of Westminster in 1965, when the cemetery became known by its current name. The cemetery contains about 22,000 interments, and remains open for burials.
The cemetery became a point of controversy in the early nineties when the then Leader of Westminster City Council and one of the councillors wanted the cemetery to be sold. The cemetery also included a considerable amount of land being used at the time for plant propagation for horticultural use throughout the City of Westminster; it also provided housing for the Cemetery Keeper. After much argument at Council Meetings and against the advice of the Chief Officers concerned, the cemetery was sold, the transaction then became part of the Westminster cemeteries scandal. The council was forced, after the move had been declared unlawful, to repurchase the cemetery but was unable to buy back the crematorium. This was purchased by the London Cremation Company.
The cemetery contains a number of structures listed on the National Heritage List for England.
The Anglican chapel was designed by Barnett and Birch and is a Grade II listed chapel, as is the crematorium.
The gates and lodge are also Grade II listed.
The monuments to Thomas Skarratt Hall, Harry Ripley, Peter Nicol Russell, Thomas Tate, and the mausoleum of Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk and his wife and son, are all listed Grade II,
The cemetery was awarded a Green Flag Award in 2007, 2008 and 2009. It is also a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation.
Notable burials & cremations
- Melanie Appleby – Mel in pop duo Mel and Kim
- George Barham – founder of the Express County Milk Company
- Henry Walter Bates – Naturalist and explorer who gave the first scientific account of mimicry in animals
- Jeremy Beadle – TV presenter
- Louisa Sarah Bevington - anarchist and poet
- Sir Henry Bishop – Professor of Music at Oxford and operatic composer
- Keith Blakelock – Police Constable murdered in 1985 Tottenham riot
- Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk – Memorial chapel and Mausoleum
- Sir James Boyton, British estate agent and a Conservative politician
- Sir Austen Chamberlain – Foreign Secretary, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize, son of Joseph Chamberlain and brother of Neville Chamberlain
- Harry Champion – Music Hall singer
- Emily Davies – Foundress of Girton College Cambridge, first residential college for women granting university degrees in 1869; full name Sarah Emily Davies, known widely as Miss Davies
- Robert Donat – Actor.
- Alfred Ellis - photographer
- Matthew Garber – Actor.
- Sir Edmund Gosse – English poet, author and critic
- William Gowland – Engineer and archaeologist who for many years lived in Japan
- Thomas Skarratt Hall – foundation investor in the Mount Morgan mine, Queensland, Australia
- Manya Harari – translator of Russian literature and the co-founder of Harvill Press
- Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe – Founder of the Daily Mail
- Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth – British businessman and Liberal politician
- Sir Leicester Harmsworth – Newspaper Publisher with a memorial by Edwin Lutyens
- Harold Harrison – England rugby union international, died serving as army Colonel in World War II.
- Sir George Hayter – Queen Victoria's principal painter in ordinary
- Max Herrmann-Neisse – exiled German poet and novelist
- Quintin Hogg – English merchant and philanthropist, remembered primarily as a benefactor of the Royal Polytechnic institution at Regent Street, London, now the University of Westminster.
- Fanny Houston – British philanthropist, political activist and suffragette.
- Edmond Hoyle - writer on games
- Thomas Henry Huxley – Scientist
- Toto Koopman – Model and Italian Resistance spy
- Humphrey Lyttelton – English jazz musician and broadcaster
- Jimmy Nervo – entertainer and part of the original Crazy Gang
- Sir James Paget – English surgeon and pathologist after whom Paget's disease is named
- Sidney Paget – Illustrator of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories
- Wendy Richard – Actress, previously cremated at Golders Green Crematorium
- W. Heath Robinson – Artist and cartoonist
- Gaynor Rowlands – Actress and Singer
- Sir Thomas Smith, 1st Baronet, of Stratford Place – eminent British surgeon, Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria and honorary Serjeant-Surgeon to Edward VII
- Henry Charles Stephens – Ink magnate, philanthropist and local MP
- Thomas Stevens – Cyclist, the first one to circle the globe by bicycle
- Marie Studholme – Actress and Singer
- Leopold Stokowski – Conductor
- William Bernhardt Tegetmeier – English naturalist, bee keeper and friend of Charles Darwin
- Little Tich – Music Hall singer and dancer
- Mathilde Verne – English pianist and teacher
- George Walters – Sergeant in the 49th Foot who won the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Inkermann in 1854
- Kenneth Williams – Actor and comedian
- Albert Yorke, 6th Earl of Hardwicke – British diplomat and Conservative politician.
- Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke – Champagne Charlie – British aristocrat and Conservative politician
War graves