Churchyards are burial grounds encompassed within the walled boundary of a church. During the latter half of the eighteenth century some churches, especially in central London, established extramural burial grounds due to the shortage of space within their churchyards. Many of these ‘church gardens’ have since been turned into public gardens. Where information exists these sites are included within the churchyard element of this audit.

Cemeteries are burial grounds outside the confines of a church. These include private burial grounds (mostly constructed during the Victorian era) and more recently established local authority burial grounds.

Churchyards and burial grounds fulfilled most burial needs in the central part of the city up until the early 19^th century. As these sites became over-burdened, larger public cemeteries on the edge of the urban area where proposed. Seven major sites were identified during the early part of the last century and the first of the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ Victorian cemeteries - Kensal Green Cemetery - was opened in 1832. The other six are West Norwood, Highgate, Nunhead, Abney Park, Brompton and Tower Hamlets.

Many other cemeteries were established during the Victorian era and the early part of this century. Burial space in London is again in short supply and new cemeteries are being proposed or established. However, few new cemeteries are likely to be established in London in the future because of the limited availability of suitable land.

Cemeteries in London cover approximately 1300 hectares, just under 1% of Greater London’s land cover. Cemeteries are predominately situated in outer London boroughs with the largest areas of cemetery land being in Newham (153 ha) and Barnet (142 ha). In comparison, Hackney (13 ha) and Kensington & Chelsea (16 ha) have relatively small amounts of cemetery land (see Table 1). In Newham, which has the largest area of cemetery space and Kensington & Chelsea, which has one of the smallest areas of cemetery space, cemeteries provide over one third of the available public open space (LPAC/Halcrow Fox, 1997). The Map represents the extent of the resource in London.

Until further research is carried out it is not possible fully to ascertain Greater London’s churchyard resource (see ‘Rationale and Limitations of Approach’). However, from the little data that is available, it is clear that churchyards represent a relatively minor resource in terms of the land which they encompass, but they are a significant potential resource with respect to their distribution. Their distribution throughout London contrasts with the cemeteries that are confined largely to outer London boroughs. Churchyards that have been identified by the London Ecology Unit for their nature conservation importance, cover approximately 88 ha (see Table 2). This does not represent the full potential resource – many other churchyards have been managed in a way that has limited their nature conservation value.