Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington extends over some 32 acres. The site was occupied for 150 years by the grounds of two large 17th century houses, both long demolished. The two sets of grounds, with many fine trees and walks, were amalgamated into what became the Cemetery.
In the early part of the nineteenth century the population of London began to grow, and the tiny church burial grounds could no longer cope. Several commercial cemetery companies opened large new burial grounds in a ring a few miles from old London. The Abney Park Cemetery Company opened its first venture – Abney Park – in May 1840. It was unusual at the time in that it was expressly a place for Non-Conformists (ie persons who rejected the ceremonial and liturgy of the Church of England, instead worshipping in Methodist, Baptist, Congregationalists, Wesleyan and other chapels; the Quakers and Salvationists are similar groups), many of whom lived in the area.
In common with other newly established cemeteries, Abney Park was very spacious and, of course, initially with few burial plots. This combined with the plantings from the old houses, allowed the Company to develop a very fine arboretum. At its height it eclipsed the Royal Park at Kew, with 2,500 different species – 2,000 in place when the cemetery opened. The effect was to make Abney Park a tourist attraction from the outset.
Inevitably, as London and its population expanded through the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, the requirement for grave plots grew, and was satisfied at the expense of the arboretum. In addition, many mature elms were felled in the 1960s during the outbreak of Dutch Elm Disease, so that little of the early planting can now be identified.
Eventually, as the cemetery became effectively full, the Abney Park Cemetery Company’s income dwindled, and the resources available for maintenance dried up. During the 1950s groups of ‘common graves’ were dug along some of the main paths and driveways, mostly at the top (south) end, but this too was a dwindling (and undignified) resource and the Company collapsed. Abney Park, and their other properties, were acquired by the local authorities. The London Borough of Hackney was able to make only very limited funds available for maintenance, so the fortunate result of a twenty year policy of benign neglect was to allow the cemetery to develop into an ‘urban forest’. The unfortunate result was a considerable amount of unchecked vandalism plus damage from fallen trees. To counter this a group of local people have formed the Abney Park Cemetery Trust with the objective of rescuing and to some degree rehabilitating the cemetery. The Trust has been involved in an indexing project and this index can be accessed on the Internet.