The Old Bunhill Fields Cemetery

Bunhill Fields Cemetary in London is one of the oldest and most famous cemetaries in all of the U.K. mostly because it is the burial place of what, back then, were called the Non-Conformists.  This included poets and writers of reknown, such as William Blake who was considered a pagan back then, that were “outside of society.”  The site also includes a lot of dissenters from the Church of England.

The cemetary is a popular tourist destination today.  It was established in 1665 in the London borough of Islington. It is not always open to the public.  All in all it covers almost ten acres and consists of 120,000 quite old graves.  Nobody has been buried there since 1854 so it is a treasure trove of old headstones.  It is considered to be a “full” graveyard.  The oldest tombstone inscription that can be read is from 1666 when a young woman likely died from the plague.

Originally the old grave yard was part of the grounds of an old manor known as Fensbury that was first built in 1104.  The grave sites are located on what used to be known as Bunhill fields in the time of the Saxons.

One of the tragedies of the graveyard is that it bore extreme damage from bombing during World War II.  After the war was over great efforts were made by the city to turn the damaged areas into a gloriously landscaped old garden.

Famous people who are buried here include the painter and poet Wiilam Blacke (1757-1827),  the author of Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan (1628-1688) and inventor of the steam engine Jabez Carter Hornblower (1744-1844.)  Other famous figures buriend there include Thomas Pringle (1789-1834) Scottish poet and author,  Isaac Watss (1674-1742) hymn writer and poet and Joseph Nightingale (1775-1824) writer and preacher.

In February 2012 Occupy London opened a site to replace their Bank of Ideas at Sun Street in the northwestern corner of Bunhill Fields.