Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery is a cemetery located in Earl's Court, a part of the Borough of Kensington & Chelsea in west London, England.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The cemetery was opened as part of an initiative in the mid-19th century to provide seven large, modern cemeteries (sometimes called the 'Magnificent Seven') in a ring round the outside of London of which Highgate Cemetery was another example. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead.

Related Topics:
19th century - Magnificent Seven - London - Highgate Cemetery

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brompton Cemetery was designed by Benjamin Baud and has at its centre a modest domed chapel (in the style of the basilica of St. Peter's in Rome), reached by long colonnades, and flanked by catacombs. The chapel is dated 1839.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Famous occupants of the cemetery include:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Joseph Bonomi the Younger - sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator
• Fanny Brawne - John Keats' muse
• Henry Cole - Founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music, the 1851 Great Exhibition and inventor of the Christmas card
• Samuel Cunard - Founder of the Cunard Line
• Charles Fremantle - Founded the Swan River Colony (Western Australia)
• John William Godward - painter
• George Goldie - "Founded" Nigeria
• Geraldine Jewsbury - writer
• Percy E. Lambert - d. October 21, 1913, racecar driver
• Emmeline Pankhurst - Britain's leading suffragette
• Blanche Roosevelt - American opera singer and author
• Samuel Smiles - Biographer and inventor of "self-help"
• Ethel Smyth - Classical composer and suffragette
• John Snow - Anaesthesiologist and epidemiologist, famed for demonstrating the link between cholera and infected water.
• Arthur Sullivan - no, not the composer (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) but one of his less-famous musical relatives...
• Richard Tauber - operatic tenor
• Frederic Thesiger, 1st Baron Chelmsford - jurist and statesman
• Brandon Thomas - Author of Charley's Aunt
• Frederic Augustus Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford - Commander-in-Chief of the Zulu War

While the cemetery is still open for occasional new burials, today more people use it as a delightful public park (and a notorious homosexual meeting place) than as a place for mourning the dead. It has featured in a number of films, including "The wisdom of crocodiles" (starring Jude Law) and "Crush" (Imelda Staunton and Andie MacDowell); as well as being used as a location by photographers such as Bruce Weber (see "The Chop Suey Club"). Brompton Cemetery is now administered by the Royal Parks agency.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See also: List of famous cemeteries

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~