Cremation and Kensal Green Cemetery

Date: 11:00 23rd March 2025

Join us for an event marking the anniversary of cremation in Britain. We will assemble at the Dissenters’ Chapel at 11 am for welcome hot drinks, followed by a guided tour, revealing cremation related stories of people buried in Kensal Green. The tour is led by Robert Stephenson. 

The tour will finish at the Crematorium, where we will assemble for the presentation by Brian Parsons.

Kensal Green occupies a unique place in the history of cremation in Britain as a number of those connected with the early years of the movement are buried in the cemetery. In addition, the ashes of the first person to be cremated at Woking in March 1885 rest in the catacombs beneath the Anglican chapel. The cemetery’s links with cremation are fully explored in this illustrated presentation which coincides with the 140th anniversary of Mrs Pickersgill’s cremation. 

Brian Parsons is the author of The London Way of Death, Committed to the Cleansing Flame: The Development of Cremation in Nineteenth Century England, The Undertaker at Work: 1900-1950 and, with Hugh Meller, the sixth edition of London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer. His most recent publication is a revision of Peter Jupp’s classic text: From Dust to Ashes. Cremation and the British Way of Death (published by Springer). 

www.brianparsons.org.uk

There will be an opportunity to look at the back rooms of the Crematorium.

Buffet lunch and hot drinks are included.

 

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