Place:Tower Hamlets Cemetery, London, England

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park (known locally as Bow Cemetery) is a closed (to new interrments), historic cemetery in London's East End. Located in the ecclesiastical parishes of St Dunstan's Stepney and St Leonard, Bromley-by-Bow, the cemetery's 27 acres were divided into consecrated land for Anglican burials and unconsecrated for other denominations. It was opened in 1841 and closed for burials in 1966 having become one of London's "Magnificent Seven". This was the most working class of London's Victorian Cemeteries and in its first two years, more than half of the interments were in public graves, those of people who could not afford a plot and funeral.

The Burial Records are in the London Metropolitan Archives at 40 Northampton Road London EC1R OHB. Ownership of the cemetery passed to the Greater London Council who took it over as a public park. With abolition of the GLC [Greater London Council], it passed to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1986.

In 1990, the Friends of the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park was set up. The Friends are a group of locals who came together because they were concerned over the increasing neglect by successive owners. Their main objectives are to encourage greater use of this inner urban green space as a sanctuary for people and a place of biodiversity. The "Friends" are also active in increasing the knowledge of its wildlife and its history, led by the East London History Society. They manage the Cemetery Park via a Service Level Agreement with LBTH [London Borough of Tower Hamlet] Parks and are responsible for the daily maintenance and litter duties for the Park, much of this work is carried out by volunteers through practical conservation events. It became Tower Hamlets first Local Nature Reserve in 2001. Near-by land was added in the mid-nineties, known as "Scrapyard Meadow" and Ackroyd Drive Green Link. In 1993 the Soanes Centre, within the Park, opened offering programmes of education in the natural environment based on the ponds and the flower rich woodlands and meadows in the park. Today it is 33 acres of "managed" mature, broadleaved woodland and meadow. It contains war graves of both world wars.

During the 1939-1945 War the cemetery suffered severely from enemy air attacks directed on the City of London, the two chapels and many of the memorials having been damaged or destroyed. All the 279 Commonwealth war casualties buried in this cemetery are recorded on bronze panels affixed to a screen wall. In addition there are 4 Dutch merchant seamen named there. The war graves are no longer maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and all the familiar white Commission headstones have been removed.

Wikipedia

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Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is a local nature reserve and historic cemetery in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets within the East End of London. It is regarded as one of the seven great cemeteries of the time (now known as the "Magnificent Seven").

The cemetery opened in 1841 and closed for burials in 1966, since which and other land has been added to the park, including "Scrapyard Meadow".

It was originally named The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery but was called Bow Cemetery by locals. The cemetery pre-dates the creation of the modern Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1965, and instead takes its name from the original, older and somewhat larger, Tower Hamlets (or Tower division) – from which the modern borough also takes its name. The historic parish boundary which defines the Mile End and Bromley-by-Bow areas runs north to south through the park, with Mile End to the west and Bromley-by-Bow to the east.

Resources

Find-A-Grave Link: Tower Hamlets Cemetery, London, England