This cemetery, known as on London Road or Beckenham Cemetery, has been described as a "small but intact Victorian cemetery that still boasts a complete ensemble of decorative iron gates, lodge, mortuary and twin chapels joined by a three-arched porte-cochère" (Meller 76), though the lodge has since been rebuilt (see "London Road Cemetery"). It is conventionally laid out with a circular central area and cruciform drives, and planted with "Cedars, Scots pine and other conifers with later flowering 'cemetery trees'" (London Road Cemetery"). Its architect George Truefitt (1824-1902) practised mainly in the north of London, where he was surveyor to the large Tufnell Park housing estate. He built many of the large villas there, and an unusual church with a circular nave (St George's, which was once converted to a theatre). But here at Beckenham, as Hugh Meller says, he "proved himself equally competent at designing Gothic buildings with the added flourish of large French-inspired crocket capitals" (76). — Jacqueline Banerjee
The Cemetery
Monuments
- Sarah Maria Digby (1844-1899)
- Fanny Draper (d. 1907, 61 years)
- Philemon William Stone (d. 1895 years)
- Douglas George Pengelly (1895-1903)
- Mary Ann May and Martha Alexandra Lepper
Tombs
Bibliography
"London Road Cemetery." London Gardens Online. Web. 24 March 2013.
Meller, Hugh. London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994. Print.
"St George's Theatre, Islington." British Listed Buildings. Web. 24 March 2013.
Last modified 21 March 2013