THE ABODE OF THE MORTAL PARTS 
A Guided Tour of Abney Park Cemetery with John Baldock

Sunday 11th October from 3:00 pm

When the overfilled graveyards in central London were forced to close under the Burial Act of 1852 the burden of the capital's inhumation was passed on to the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Abney Park in Stoke Newington inherited the nickname of the "Campo Santo (holy field) of the Dissenters" from Bunhill Fields, where Bunyan, Defoe and Blake are buried.

Click here for directions to the workshop at Abney Park Cemetery 

Tickets £8 including a Hendrick's Gin Cocktail.

The frontage of Abney Park is in Egyptian Revival style (its hieroglyphics reading the "Abode of the Mortal Part of Man"), appropriately for the first nondenominational garden cemetery in Europe. It hosts the final resting places of many nonconformist clerics and evangelists, including William and Catherine Booth, the founders of the Salvation Army. Other residents include prominent 19th Century members of the anti-slavery, Chartist, feminist and peace movements.

Over recent years financial problems and neglect have taken their toll on the cemetery and in 2009 it was included on the Heritage at Risk Register. John Baldock John has worked for Abney Park Trust for nearly 5 years. He first joined as a volunteer having fallen in love with Abney's gothic beauty.