Thursday, 24 January 2013
180th anniversary of the consecration of Kensal Green Cemetery
18:30 for 19:00 in the Dissenters' Chapel (Ladbroke Grove entrance)
Lecture, wine and cake! Free to Friends, £5 donation requested of visitors
Kensal Green, London's first garden cemetery, was created by Act of Parliament on 11 July 1832. With the completion of a temporary wooden chapel, the Bishop of London consecrated the ground of the Anglican cemetery on 24 January 1833, and the first funeral — of Margaret Gregory, wife of the scurrilous journalist Barnard Gregory — was conducted exactly one week later. The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery will mark this 180th anniversary with a lecture on the past, present and future of Kensal Green.

Saturday 23 February 2013
BLONDIN's BIRTHDAY
14:00 at the Blondin memorial, Square 140 (Centre Avenue, just west of the Anglican Chapel)
Toasts, short readings and fond words to celebrate the great funambulist (born 28 February 1824), with members of the Blondin Society -- all welcome!

Saturday, 16 March 2013
LAMAS archaeology conference
10:00 to 17:00, Museum of London
The London and Middlesex Archaeological Society's annual Archaeology conference this year includes a report on 'Clearing the Dead: Excavations at Stevens Street, Bermondsey' (Alexis Haslam, PCA). Tickets £10 before 1 March 2013, £15 thereafter; bookable online at http://www.lamas.org.uk/arch2013.html.

Wednesday 17 April 2013
Dickens connections AT Kensal Green Cemetery
Willesden Local History Society, St Mungo's Pound Lane Centre, 115 Pound Lane, NW10 2HU
19:30
An illustrated lecture by FOKGC Guide Signe Hoffos, on the many colourful figures connected with the life and work of Charles Dickens who now rest in Kensal Green Cemetery, from his beloved sister-in-law Mary Hogarth to his fellow novelists Wilkie Collins and Harrison Ainsworth. Free to members of the WLHS, visitors welcome.

Saturday, 27 April 2013
Rededication of the restored grave of Artist John William Waterhouse RA (1849-1917)
11:00, meet at the Anglican Chapel, service at the graveside in Sq. 187
With the generous support of donors including Frank van den Bos, Neil Miley and Dr. John Physick (a founder member of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery and the artist’s great-nephew), the monument above the grave of the artist John William Waterhouse has been restored with a new plaque by sculptor David Kelly. The rededication, in the month of the artist's birthday, will be followed by a reception in the Dissenters' Chapel.

Saturday and Sunday, 4-5 May 2013
photography exhibition: Invisible Thrills
10:00 to 18:00 in the Dissenters’ Gallery
Private view and charity auction, Friday, May 3, 18:00 to 21:00
Contemporary photography by Amber Longhurst, Bettina Adela and Temitayo Allison.

24 May - 26 June 2013
Sean Smith: On the Margins
10:00 to 20:00 in the Dissenters’ Gallery
Contemporary photography byaward-winning photojournalist Sean Smith.

Tuesday, 11 June 2013
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINg
18:00 in the Dissenters’ Chapel
Light refreshments from 18:00, AGM at 19:00, public presentation on proposals for Kensal Gasworks 19:30
The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery will be followed by a presentation by James Masini, Senior Planning Officer, Neighbourhood Planning, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, on the proposed redevelopment of the Kensal Gasworks site, immediately south of Kensal Green Cemetery. The new development will span the entire site from the Grand Union Canal to the Great West Railway, and from Ladbroke Grove to a line due south of the cemetery's western boundary. Kensal House will be preserved, but most of the rest of the site, including the present Sainsbury's supermarket and bus hub, will be redeveloped. All are welcome to attend the evening, although voting at the AGM will be restricted to Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery. Last year's consulation documents: http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/planningandconservation/planningpolicy/kensalgasworksstrategicsite.aspx; download a PDF of a short article on the proposals from the Friends' magazine.

Saturday, 22 June 2013
OPEN DAY 2013
11.00 to 17.00
Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery Open Day 2013
Introductory and themed tours of the cemetery, catacomb tours throughout the day, displays and stalls from other cemetery societies, local history groups and specialists in items and services of particular interest to the Friends of historical cemeteries.

Thursday, 11 July 2013
Rededication of the restored grave of Harriet Smyth (1838-1859)
14:00, meet at the Dissenters' Chapel, service at the graveside in Sq. 106
With the generous support of Declan Walton, the monument above the grave of the Canadian-born muse of the young French poet Stéphane Mallarmé has been uncovered and restored with a new plaque. The unveiling, on the anniversary of Harriet's death, at the age of twenty, will be followed by a reception in the Dissenters' Chapel.

The Dissenters' Chapel, on the east end of the cemetery, has a discrete entrance on Ladbroke Grove, just north of the Grand Union Canal. For lectures, we ask for a donation of £3.00 from visitors, or £2.00 from Friends, on the door; light refreshments are offered before and after the lecture, when the Friends' bookstall will also be open.

Ladbroke Grove entrance

Entrance to the Dissenters' Chapel

Past lectures

1991
To Paradise by Way of Kensal Green (Julian Litten)

1992
Embalming and Presentation (Mark Bowis)

1993
The Architecture of Kensal Green Cemetery (Jennifer Freeman)
Transport of the Dead 1450-1900 (Julian Litten)
Methods of Disposal of the Dead (David Pescod)

1994
Italian Cemeteries: Florence, Genoa and Venice (John Ashby)
Cremation: A Hundred Years of Burning the Dead (David Pescod)
Embalming (David Pescod)
Church Monuments: From Coffin Lids to Weeping Widows (Isobel Sinden)

1995
The Butterflies of Kensal Green Cemetery (Tim Freed)
Gone but Not Forgotten: Famous People of the Past (June Firkins)
Extraordinary Epitaphs (Nigel Rees)
Prehistoric Burial Sites (Robert Stephenson)
Post-Mortem Movements and the Rise of the Vampire (David Pescod)
The Treatment of Post-Industrial Corpses (David Pescod)

1996
The Notorious Earl of Mornington and his Wanstead Connections (Peter Lawrence)
Brookwood Cemetery and Its Railway (John Clarke)
Church Monuments and the Gothic Revival (Dr. Thomas Cocke)
Frogmore Mausoleum and Royal Burials at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor (Leslie Grout)
Preserved Corpses (David Pescod)

1997
Vampires (David Pescod)
The Monuments of Kensal Green Cemetery and their Stylistic Development (Dr. Roger Bowdler)
Mount Auburn Cemetery: America’s First Garden Cemetery (Dr. Stephen Jerome)
Eric Gill’s Monuments at Kensal Green and Elsewhere (Dr. David Peace)
The Prehistoric Iceman (David Pescod)
The Life, Death, Burial and Resurrection Company (Dr. Ruth Richardson)

1998
Frederick Salmon and St. Mark's Hospital (James Thomson)
The 5th Duke of Portland and his Burrowing Career (Roger Morgan)
Death and the Victorians (Robert Stephenson)
Burial Vaults of the Aristocracy (Dr. Julian Litten)
Spontaneous Human Combustion (David Pescod)

1999
Excavating the Crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields (Jez Reeve)
The Cult of the Ruin (Christopher Woodward)
The Surgeon, Cadaver and the Resurrectionist (Karen Howell)
The Landscape of Kensal Green Cemetery, Its Inspiration and Planting (Dr. Brent Elliott)
From Victoria to Diana: Changing Attitudes to Death (Dr. Tony Walter)
Well Hung in London: The City’s Execution Sites (Robert Stephenson)

2000
West Norwood Cemetery (Bob Flanagan)
A History of the Mausoleum (Robert Stephenson)
Thackeray: The Road to Vanity Fair (David J Taylor)
The Royal Mausolea at Frogmore (Hermione Hobhouse)
Tombstones (Dr. John Physick)
Funerary Symbolism (Don Bianco)

2001
Disposal of the Dead in the Hindu Kush (David Pescod)
Music Hall Artistes Buried at Kensal Green and Other London Cemeteries (Terry Lomas)
The Work of the Friends of War Memorials (Maggie Goodall)
Burial Before Undertakers: Death in Early Modern England (Clare Gittings)
The Bravo Murder Mystery (Nicholas Reed)
Sir Marc Brunel: The Forgotten Genius (Michael Bennett)

2002
The Growth of Cremation 1820-2000 (Rev. Peter C. Jupp)
Edward Young, Night Thoughts and the Genesis of the Garden Cemetery (Prof. James Stevens Curl)
Funerals and Funeral Directing in London: A Look at the Last 100 Years (Brian Parsons)
Cadavers in the Cloisters: Death in Medieval England (Robert Stephenson)
The Work of Memorials by Artists (Harriet Frazer)

2003
Preservation of the Dead (Andrea Britton)
The Heraldic Funeral (Dr. Julian Litten)
Blondin: The Man Who Walked Over Niagara (George Speaight)
Highgate Cemetery -- Past, Present and Future (Jean Pateman)

2004
The Work of the Natural Death Centre (Stephanie Wienrich)
Abney Park Cemetery (David Solman)
The Railway of the Great Northern Cemetery (Martin Dawes)
The Story of Andrew Pears and his Transparent Soap (Andrea Cameron)

2005
A Walk in the Paradise Garden: 19th Century London Cemeteries (Ken Worple)
Don’t Drop the Coffin (Barry Albin)
The Medieval Churchyards of the City of London (Val Pretlove)
Twenty Years in a Doleful Profession (Celia Smith)

2006
From Welbeck via Woking to Kensal Green -- The Early History of Cremation (Brian Parsons)
Sir Edwin Chadwick and the London Dead (Ruth Richardson)

2012
Backstage Life and Social Conditions in the Early 19th Century Theatre (Frances Hughes)
Walk Like an Egyptian cemetery tour (Cathie Bryan)
The Gruesome History of Body Snatching (Robert Stephenson)
Dickens Connections at Kensal Green (Signe Hoffos)