CHARLTON CEMETERY
Charlton Cemetery Photographs
Charlton Cemetery Photographs
This is the first cemetery I have visited since I started London Necropolis. So it was the first cemetery I visited with a view to writing about it as well as photographing it; unfortunately things didn't quite work out in the way I thought it would.
Firstly I had trouble getting to the cemetery - it's on the edge of Woolwich - if you're coming by bus get off outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. If you wait to go past the Woolwich Barracks you'll have a loooong walk back - like I did. The irony wasn't lost on me at all that Charlton Cemetery is flanked by a hospital on one side, army barracks on another and situated right next to it - a care home. Are these things done deliberately?
I approached the cemetery and was unfortunately greeted with the call of 'Hello Miss'. Being a teacher, and being in the area of my school, it was inevitable that I would bump into at least one student. Although this wasn't a student I actually teach, she saw me, going into a cemetery - I really didn't want to get my camera out at the entrance! I have enough accusations hurled at me from the kids of being a 'goth' or a 'grunger' - let enough if one of them saw me taking photos in a cemetery. So I vowed to take photos of the entrance as I left. I'm very aware that my photos don't give a real 'sense' of the cemetery - this is something I hope to rectify with time.
Charlton Cemetery is quite obviously a 'working cemetery' - hence a lot of the markers and headstones are quite recent. One rule that I have enforced upon myself is that I do not photograph any markers that are under 60 years of age. I don't know how I came up with that figure but it works for me.
Anyway, I proceeded into the cemetery, and when I was a safe distance from the student and the flower seller, I got out my camera. The first sculpture that caught my eye was of this angel - her eyes abused by pollution and time. I always find that time really does add character to the sculptures - adds an aspect of pathos often. Moreover, they fit in with the decay of a cemetery. Recently I returned to Ladywell/Brockley Cemetery to photograph one of my favourite sculptures from there, only to find that it has been cleaned to look spick and span. But I digress. This sculpture really caught my eye - and I photographed it quite a lot, unfortunately I wasn't overlly pleased with the results.
The cemetery itself is extremely orderlly. It is obviously very well maintained. However, there is evidence of the usual vandalism that seems to pervade our cemeteries. This is something that I do document - although it is SO pervasive that it's difficult to document it all.
Firstly I had trouble getting to the cemetery - it's on the edge of Woolwich - if you're coming by bus get off outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. If you wait to go past the Woolwich Barracks you'll have a loooong walk back - like I did. The irony wasn't lost on me at all that Charlton Cemetery is flanked by a hospital on one side, army barracks on another and situated right next to it - a care home. Are these things done deliberately?
I approached the cemetery and was unfortunately greeted with the call of 'Hello Miss'. Being a teacher, and being in the area of my school, it was inevitable that I would bump into at least one student. Although this wasn't a student I actually teach, she saw me, going into a cemetery - I really didn't want to get my camera out at the entrance! I have enough accusations hurled at me from the kids of being a 'goth' or a 'grunger' - let enough if one of them saw me taking photos in a cemetery. So I vowed to take photos of the entrance as I left. I'm very aware that my photos don't give a real 'sense' of the cemetery - this is something I hope to rectify with time.
Charlton Cemetery is quite obviously a 'working cemetery' - hence a lot of the markers and headstones are quite recent. One rule that I have enforced upon myself is that I do not photograph any markers that are under 60 years of age. I don't know how I came up with that figure but it works for me.
Anyway, I proceeded into the cemetery, and when I was a safe distance from the student and the flower seller, I got out my camera. The first sculpture that caught my eye was of this angel - her eyes abused by pollution and time. I always find that time really does add character to the sculptures - adds an aspect of pathos often. Moreover, they fit in with the decay of a cemetery. Recently I returned to Ladywell/Brockley Cemetery to photograph one of my favourite sculptures from there, only to find that it has been cleaned to look spick and span. But I digress. This sculpture really caught my eye - and I photographed it quite a lot, unfortunately I wasn't overlly pleased with the results.
The cemetery itself is extremely orderlly. It is obviously very well maintained. However, there is evidence of the usual vandalism that seems to pervade our cemeteries. This is something that I do document - although it is SO pervasive that it's difficult to document it all.
The Fallen Angels of Charlton Cemetery
For one thing - it takes a lot of brute force to knock down a lump of stone! These vandals ARE strong. There are more photos of these sculptures in the photo album (obviously in black and white though!).
The most famous memorial in the cemetery is that belonging to Thomas Murphy, who died in 1932 at the age of 39. He was the owner of Charlton greyhound track and his faithful, life size greyhounds guard his memorial, with its Corinthian columns. This is a stunning memorial to photograph - especially if you dramatic clouds with which to frame the columns. Again - more photos of this memorial are on the photo page:
The tomb's engraving reads:
"Your love, honour and courage makes memory dear;
and grief is hushed in glorious pride of you." - Jennie
One can only assume that Jennie was his wife?
For one thing - it takes a lot of brute force to knock down a lump of stone! These vandals ARE strong. There are more photos of these sculptures in the photo album (obviously in black and white though!).
THOMAS MURPHY
The most famous memorial in the cemetery is that belonging to Thomas Murphy, who died in 1932 at the age of 39. He was the owner of Charlton greyhound track and his faithful, life size greyhounds guard his memorial, with its Corinthian columns. This is a stunning memorial to photograph - especially if you dramatic clouds with which to frame the columns. Again - more photos of this memorial are on the photo page:
The tomb's engraving reads:
"Your love, honour and courage makes memory dear;
and grief is hushed in glorious pride of you." - Jennie
One can only assume that Jennie was his wife?
There were a few more memorials that caught my eye - these are within the photo album - unfortunately my photographing was curtailed by two things.
Firstly, I have recently experienced an unexpected and sudden bereavement - the death of someone very close. I expected that perhaps this might affect how I felt going around cemeteries, and I was right. An epitaph on a rather modern stone brought tears to my eyes and sobbing to my throat. I was passed by an elderly gentleman tending a grave - he looked at my eyes and saw they were crying - then looked down at my camera around my neck - he said 'good morning' but looked most confused! I'm not surprised. As I passed him I saw this area:
It caught my eye. A section of the cemetery given over to very small, but perfectly formed, headstones. I thought at first that they were of childs' graves. But they weren't. Obviously just of people who wanted to commemorate the passing of a loved one but didn't have the finances for a plot or stone for the other part of the cemetery. Out of everything, I found these stones the most touching. And yes, through my tears I managed to photograph!
Secondly, my visit was curtailed by the rain. Something that has plagued me on most of my cemetery visits. I managed to grab a few last shots - including the ones of Jemima Ayley's mausoleum and a gated memorial that is perplexing me ... I need to go back and have another look.
Jemima Ayley
Firstly, I have recently experienced an unexpected and sudden bereavement - the death of someone very close. I expected that perhaps this might affect how I felt going around cemeteries, and I was right. An epitaph on a rather modern stone brought tears to my eyes and sobbing to my throat. I was passed by an elderly gentleman tending a grave - he looked at my eyes and saw they were crying - then looked down at my camera around my neck - he said 'good morning' but looked most confused! I'm not surprised. As I passed him I saw this area:
It caught my eye. A section of the cemetery given over to very small, but perfectly formed, headstones. I thought at first that they were of childs' graves. But they weren't. Obviously just of people who wanted to commemorate the passing of a loved one but didn't have the finances for a plot or stone for the other part of the cemetery. Out of everything, I found these stones the most touching. And yes, through my tears I managed to photograph!
Secondly, my visit was curtailed by the rain. Something that has plagued me on most of my cemetery visits. I managed to grab a few last shots - including the ones of Jemima Ayley's mausoleum and a gated memorial that is perplexing me ... I need to go back and have another look.
Jemima Ayley
The tomb for Jemima Ayley is the only mausoleum style tomb in Charlton Cemetery. It is to the right as you walk through the gates.
"She lies in effigy, mediaeval style, beneath a little domed canopy. The precise minute of her death in 1860 is recorded on the inscription and the story goes that her sister died in Norfolk on the same day. Apparently the vault beneath the monument is twenty-two feet deep and houses a table and chair, originally used by mourning relatives." HUGH MELLER - London Cemeteries (1981)
The effigy is, it has to be said, extremely creepy - this is more apparent on the black and white photos on the photo album page. Pollution has certainly ravaged this sculpture. However the monument is quite stunning, the canopied roof needs to be visited again to be photographed (unfortunately the rain was REALLY beating it down) and the ivy entwined around the sculpture certainly adds to the intrigue of the sculpture. Unfortunately, the main road running behind the cemetery tended to ruin any shots from the feet up (as you can see above)!
Finally I found this 'gated' memorial. Unfortunately, because it was raining, I had to 'snap and run' - thinking that the quotation on the memorial was by the person whose memorial it was. Only to realise later that Leigh Hunt is in fact buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. So I have no idea who this memorial is in honour of, again, I will have to return one day to find out, unless someone else can enlighten me?
"She lies in effigy, mediaeval style, beneath a little domed canopy. The precise minute of her death in 1860 is recorded on the inscription and the story goes that her sister died in Norfolk on the same day. Apparently the vault beneath the monument is twenty-two feet deep and houses a table and chair, originally used by mourning relatives." HUGH MELLER - London Cemeteries (1981)
The effigy is, it has to be said, extremely creepy - this is more apparent on the black and white photos on the photo album page. Pollution has certainly ravaged this sculpture. However the monument is quite stunning, the canopied roof needs to be visited again to be photographed (unfortunately the rain was REALLY beating it down) and the ivy entwined around the sculpture certainly adds to the intrigue of the sculpture. Unfortunately, the main road running behind the cemetery tended to ruin any shots from the feet up (as you can see above)!
Finally I found this 'gated' memorial. Unfortunately, because it was raining, I had to 'snap and run' - thinking that the quotation on the memorial was by the person whose memorial it was. Only to realise later that Leigh Hunt is in fact buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. So I have no idea who this memorial is in honour of, again, I will have to return one day to find out, unless someone else can enlighten me?
The quotation states:
"Write me as one who loved his fellow men" - Leigh Hunt
"Write me as one who loved his fellow men" - Leigh Hunt
