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Bunhill Fields Burial Grounds, City of London

First note: these photographs were taken in 2010 with a Canon EOS300D, but this is such a wonderful place that I'm unlikely to revisit any time soon, so I thought I'd add it here as a special album. I no longer have the original RAW photographs, and these few pics are all that remain of my visit there.

First and most important thing to note: burial grounds, not cemetery.
What's the difference? Cemeteries are consecrated. Because Bunhill Fields was originally designated for dissenters and non-conformists, it was never consecrated, and is thus called a burial ground. Around 4 acres, it's the last resting place for an estimated 120,000 bodies, including three of Britain's most eminent nonconformists. It's no longer in use for new interments, and hasn't been for a long time.

It's right in the centre of the City of London, and is the only remaining burial ground in the capital.

The burial grounds are separated into three or four separate fenced and gated (locked) areas, and there is only a very small handful of graves or memorials outside the fences. It is however made clear that anybody who desires access to the graves themselves may simply ask an attendant. I found a very helpful and friendly couple of the latter, who let me into the largest of the enclosures, and it was in here that I took the majority of the photographs.

There are many gems in the burial grounds. Not only are there some most unusual memorials in evidence and - of those that can be read - some fascinating inscriptions, but also it's the final resting place of three well known noncomformist artists: William Blake, John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe.

Canon EOS300D