Eight things to spot at Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is one of London’s famous ‘Magnificent Seven’, a group of spectacular cemeteries created in the Victorian period. At this time, death and mourning were marked with a rich array of rituals, symbols and traditions. Mourners often wore black clothing, and keepsakes like death masks, post-mortem photographs and jewellery made using a loved one’s hair, helped preserve the memory of those who had died.
These traditions sometimes extended into the cemetery. For those who could afford it, graves were richly decorated with symbols that conveyed messages about faith, remembrance and the hope of eternal life. The next time you’re strolling through Brompton Cemetery, take a closer look and try to ‘read’ these details. They have fascinating stories to tell.
1. Columns
Columns on a grave represent a person’s life. They often feature a deliberate ‘break’, so that it looks like the top has crumbled off – this break indicates death. A short, broken column indicates an early death while a tall, broken column indicates a death in later life. Sometimes columns are complete and unbroken, representing a long and full life. At Brompton, the grave of actor Henry Pettitt (1848-1893) features a broken column – he was only 45 years old when he died of typhoid fever.
2. Portraits
Henry Pettitt’s grave also features his portrait, inside a stone medallion surrounded by laurel leaves. This was an indication of status, and portraits can be seen on several other graves at Brompton too. An elaborate example is the grave of opera singer and writer Blanche Roosevelt Macchetta (1853-1898). It features a full-length statue depicting this well-known opera singer and writer who was killed in a carriage accident at the age of 44.
3. Chest tombs
Another sign of wealth was a chest tomb. Rather than a more modest gravestone, these feature a stone box or ‘chest’. Though it is sometimes assumed that the body is placed within the chest, this was not the case – bodies were typically buried beneath it. These more elaborate memorials provided five sides for decoration, and some examples are very ornate. One of the chest tombs at Brompton Cemetery is the grave of the writer George Borrow (1803-1881).
A variation of the chest tomb is the table tomb, which features a large slab supported by pillars. The grave of writer Lady Sydney Morgan (1783-1859) is one of the table tombs that can be seen at Brompton Cemetery.
4. Mausoleums
Even more grand than a chest tomb is a mausoleum – a small free-standing building in which coffins were typically placed above ground in a sealed chamber known as a crypt. In some places, bodies are buried in a crypt beneath the mausoleum which can be accessed via steps inside. A mausoleum is big enough to contain several generations of a family and there are many examples at Brompton. Perhaps the most ornate is the mausoleum of oil magnate James McDonald (1843-1915) which can be found on the Central Avenue. The ornate door is decorated with floral motifs and guarded by two angels.
5. Angels
Angels can be seen on many other graves at Brompton too, but not all of them are the same. Sometimes they point upwards, indicating the deceased’s ascent to heaven. Sometimes angels can be seen weeping, in grief. Other angels hold a trumpet, which represents the day of judgement – this is when Christians believe that people will be called to resurrection.
6. Obelisks
While the angel is a very Christian motif, another popular type of memorial took inspiration from ancient Egypt. This was an obelisk, which symbolises eternal life. There was intense interest in ancient Egypt during the nineteenth century, a craze that historians refer to as ‘Egyptomania’.
The most famous Victorian graves in an Egyptian style can be found at Highgate Cemetery, another of London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries. This is where you can see the spectacular Egyptian Avenue. At Brompton you can find more modest obelisks. The example above marks the grave of Asano Jugoi Nagayori (1865-1886), the son of a Japanese nobleman.
7. Urns
Many Victorian graves take their inspiration from the classical world, borrowing symbols of death from ancient Greek and Roman culture. One that can often be seen is the laurel wreath, which represents victory over death. Just one example can be seen on the grave of Iris Burnside (1894-1915), a young woman who lost her life when the HMS Lusitania was torpedoed during the First World War. Another much-repeated classical motif is the urn.
Cremation was rare during the Victorian period, and these urns did not hold remains as they did in the ancient world – instead, they were a symbol of the death of the body, and not the death of the soul. Urns are often placed on top of a memorial and are sometimes partially covered by a veil – this represents the so-called ‘veil’, or thin boundary, between life and death. At Brompton, a veiled urn can be seen on top of the grave of celebrated physician Dr John Snow (1813-1858).
8. Plants and Flowers
Many graves are adorned with plants and flowers, but the inclusion of these details was not merely decorative. Victorians were well-versed in ‘floriography’, or the language of flowers. It’s no surprise to learn that roses represented love, but an open rose indicated a married woman while a closed one represented a child or unmarried woman.
Lilies can often be seen on graves too, as they are a flower that has long been associated with death. They also represented purity and innocence, so can often be seen on the graves of women and children. Ivy was a popular choice as well. This evergreen plant represented faithfulness and eternal life. Unsurprisingly, forget-me-nots represented lasting remembrance.
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