Brompton Cemetery is an easy twenty minute walk from our flat. It's a large Victorian-era cemetery covering almost 40 acres and is situated in the Earls Court neighborhood between Kensington and Fulham.
Where else but in London would one find a café inside a cemetery? As we sat drinking our coffee, I couldn't help but notice hundreds of people surging down the central path of the cemetery. Where could they be going or coming from? They were coming from a footfall match at Stamford Bridge Stadium in Fulham, home of the Chelsea Football Club. As the crowds of football fans diminished, innumerable carrion crows came swooping in, cawing loudly above us.
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| Carrion Crows |
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| Coming from Football Match |
We then strolled through this magnificent burial ground. Over 200,000 people have been laid to rest here since the cemetery opened in 1840. One of the more famous people buried here is Emmeline Pankhurst, the controversial suffragette who was not afraid to employ militant and confrontational methods in her objective to achieve women's rights. Emmeline lived much of her life under Queen Victoria who it seems didn't share Emmeline's cause.
The Victorians were obsessed with death. Poor living conditions, accidents, illness and disease meant life could be short, especially in cities. The industrial revolution drew thousands of people into Britain's' cities to find better jobs. There were three million people living in London in 1860. As the churchyards filled to capacity, large 'garden cemeteries' were created, including Brompton.
Brompton was planned with yew, pine and cypress, trees traditionally associated with cemeteries, and family and friends of the departed often planted their own trees. The colorful rowan or mountain ash with its red autumn berries was planted to ward off evil.
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| Burial Site of Emmeline Pankhurst |
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| Stamford Bridge Football Stadium in Distance |
Returning through Earls Court, we passed the Troubadour Club, a music venue made famous with the British folk revival in the 1950s and 1960s. We then passed the home of Howard Carter, who discovered King Tut's tomb in the 1920s. Ironically, this seemed to fit in with today's theme.
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