Nunhead -- InMo Adventure #1

Goblins, ghouls, ghosties -- all noticeably lacking in London yesterday. Instead of Hallowe'en, people celebrate Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night, which should be especially interesting this year, seeing as it's a burning-stuff-up festival and the fire service will be on strike...

But anyhow. Hallowe'en. We couldn't let the day go by without some macabre meanderings, so we turned to our new favourite guidebook:


Secret London is part of Inder and Morwenna's fabulous London-themed wedding gift to us, and is now becoming the backbone of our weekend adventuring. Although we have been warned by InMo that we are not allowed to break the wedding gift seal until all the gift's constituent parts have arrived, we were simply too captivated by the festive possibilities -- The Executioner's Bell of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate! Magpie Alley Crypt! Hunterian Museum! The Dead House! -- not to crack the spine of this beauty. And so began InMo Adventure #1...

Our first pick was the Hyde Park Pet Cemetery ("Mad dogs and Englishmen have always been inseparable," Secret London says), but apparently visits are by appointment only, and you have to ask the permission of the police one week in advance of your visit? What??? If we wanted a taste of Victorian Gothic, we weren't going to get it here. So, off to Nunhead Cemetery!


Nunhead is one of London's "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries, built in the early 19th century when local churchyards were getting "unhealthily full." (Ew.) It's 52 acres, rising to an impressive 60 metres above sea level, which affords great views of St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye.

The real stuff to be seen, though, is on the ground. The cemetery is a wild tangle of vines and trees and listing tombstones -- the result of the United Cemetery Company's decision to lock the gates and walk away in the early 1970s, once there was no more room at the inn and no more money to be made. From there, nature took over.


The scene was reminiscent of our visit to the Okopowa Street Cemetery in Warsaw -- beautifully spooky, and tremendously overgrown. The cemetery was re-opened to the public in 2001, and now there are helpful little white signs lining the footpaths to remind you that the tombstones are a bit unstable. You think?


The last Sunday of every month is tour day at Nunhead Cemetery. This was our tour guide, Rex:


Rex is about 1,000 years old and speaks at the volume of a hushed whisper. He is a font of really tedious knowledge about the cemetery, and he walks at the pace of 20 metres per half hour. We know this because we stuck with the tour (which is bizarrely popular -- look at the crowd!) for 30 minutes, and we made, quite literally, about 20 metres' worth of progress. It was not hard to make the decision to slip away and enjoy a walk through the woods. Next time, Wellies!


Thanks, Inder and Morwenna! More adventures to come!