Putney Lower Common Cemetery

Putney Lower Common Cemetery is a cemetery on the edge of the London Borough of Wandsworth between Putney and Barnes town centres.

Geography

The cemetery has an area of 1.21ha[1] and is the smallest in Wandsworth. It lies on the north side of Mill Hill road (B349) between the junctions with Rocks Lane (A306) and Queen's Ride/Lower Richmond road (B306). The north and west boundary walls border with Barnes Common and the east wall borders with Putney Lower Common.[2]

History

Putney Lower Common Cemetery chapel

The cemetery was laid out from 1855[3] on three acres of land from the estate of Earl Spencer; it was opened in 1855.[4] The chapel building, lodge on the south east corner and brick boundary wall were designed by Barnett and Birch and built by W and R Aviss, who also have a family tomb on the site.[5]

In 1891 the cemetery officially closed when Putney Vale Cemetery opened, but burials continued until much later[6] with the last one being in the 1970s.[7]

The Friends of Lower Putney Common Cemetery are a charity that 'monitor the condition of the Putney Lower Common Cemetery in the hope of providing funds for any future restoration'.[8] In 2017 they raised money with a concert at The Half Moon pub for restoration work to be carried out on the chapel building which was in a dilapidated state.[9] The work was designed by Roger Mears architects and the chapel was converted into a private dwelling.[10] The project was a runner up in the 2019/2020 Alliance for Sustainable Building Products awards[11] and a Gold Winner in the Built Environment Architects category at the 2019 International Green Apple Awards for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage.[12]

Features and notable burials

There are five Commonwealth War Graves Commission graves in the cemetery of casualties of the First World War, buried between 1916 and 1918.[13]

The cemetery also includes the graves of sculpturer Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807–1894) who designed and sculpted the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park,[14] the historian Louis Charles Alexander (1839–1913) who was editor of The Autobiography of Shakespeare – A Fragment in 1911[15] and involved in the founding of the Royal Historical Society in 1868,[16] cricketer and barrister Sir Alfred Dryden (1821–1912) who was a descendant of poet John Dryden, merchant banker John Frederick Flemmich (1819–1892) who was in business with German art collector Frederick Huth, and solicitor and property developer Henry Scarth (1802–70) who built The Arab Boy[17] and the former Quill[18] pubs and the residential Parkfields area in Putney.[19][20]

Wildlife

There are several mature trees in the cemetery and the tombstones provide habitats for mosses, lichens and stonecrops.[21]

Hedgehog tunnels were added to the boundary walls in 2021, these enable the animals to roam around the cemetery and surrounding commons and help increase their chance of reproducing.[22]

Transport

There are parking spaces on Mill Hill Road, just outside the cemetery gates. The park is served by Transport for London buses 22, 265 and 284 which stop on at the Commondale stop on the Lower Richmond Road. Barnes railway station (Southwestern Railway) is a ten-minute walk from the park.

References

  1. ↑ Gardens (en), Parks and. "Putney Lower Common Cemetery". www.parksandgardens.org. Parks & Gardens. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  2. ↑ "Wandsworth Cemeteries". enable.ydlstaging.co.uk/. Enable. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  3. ↑ "Wandsworth Cemeteries". enable.ydlstaging.co.uk/. Enable. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  4. ↑ Gardens (en), Parks and. "Putney Lower Common Cemetery". www.parksandgardens.org. Parks & Gardens. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  5. ↑ Meller, Hugh (1994). London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer. Scolar Press. p. 352. ISBN 978-0859679978. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  6. ↑ "The Burial Grounds of Putney London SW15" (PDF). putneysociety.org.uk/. The Putney Society. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  7. ↑ "Putney's Local Web site". www.putneysw15.com. PutneySW15. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  8. ↑ "Friends of Putney Lower Common Cemetery – Charity 1165360". register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. Charity Commission. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "A Celebratory Fundraiser in Aid of Putney Common Cemetery Featuring Robbie Ransom on 9th February at The Half Moon". www.putneysw15.com. PutneySW15. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  10. ↑ "Putney Chapel Rescue of a derelict London Chapel and Residential Conversion". www.rmears.co.uk/. Roger Mears. 26 July 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  11. ↑ "Putney Chapels". asbp.org.uk/. The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  12. ↑ "2019 International Green Apple Awards for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage". thegreenorganisation.info/. The Green Apple Environment Awards. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Putney Lower Common Cemetery". www.cwgc.org/. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  14. ↑ "What are the 'Crystal Palace Dinosaurs'?". cpdinosaurs.org. Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  15. ↑ Shakespeare, William (2008). Alexander, Louis Charles (ed.). The Autobiography of Shakespeare a Fragment. Read Books. ISBN 978-1409784852. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  16. ↑ "Royal Historical Society". aim25.com/. Archives in London and the M25 area. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  17. ↑ "The Oldest Pint". positivelyputney.co.uk. Positively Putney. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  18. ↑ "Quill, Putney". www.closedpubs.co.uk. The Lost Pubs Project. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  19. ↑ "Parkfields Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Strategy" (PDF). www.wandsworth.gov.uk/. Wandsworth Borough Council. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  20. ↑ "The Burial Grounds of Putney London SW15" (PDF). putneysociety.org.uk/. The Putney Society. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  21. ↑ "Putney Lower Common". discover-london.gigl.org.uk. Greenspace Information for Greater London. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  22. ↑ "Enable Parks Service twitter status". Twitter. Enable Parks Service @EnableParks. Retrieved 5 April 2021.

51°28′10″N 0°13′56″W / 51.4695°N 0.2323°W / 51.4695; -0.2323

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