Part One
On my 2nd day in London i was really in for a treat! For this adventure i had to take a train at 12.06 from Victoria Station. Which gave me a bit of time after breakfast.
I decided to visit the Wallace Collection which was in the neighbourhood of my hotel and it was very convenient for me to drop by for a short visit. As admission is free it didn't really matter that i could only stay for about an hour. As my time was rather limited i didn't look at the paintings that closely but decided to enjoy the precious furniture and clocks, and the decorative art objects. That one hour passed by ever so quickly and it was time to head for Victoria Station. I was so excited because i would
- meet with someone for the first time in real life and we would
- explore the West Norwood Cemetery together
The meeting with my friend
At the beginning of this year in the aftermath of Bowie's death my online paths crossed with someone who I started communicating with on a regular basis. We noticed we share quite a few interests and have similar tastes in art and music. It turned out we both know what it is like to be passionate over our pastimes and obsessions. It was so refreshing to have a real exchange of thoughts and opinions amidst the often shallow drivel in social media. So with time we became friends and shared a lot of thoughts and experiences and ideas and views.
Now it is one thing to get along online, it doesn't necessarily mean that this is transferable into real life. But for some reason i wasn't nervous. Pleasant anticipation definitely prevailed when i boarded the train. Arrived at West Norwood on time and tried to remember the instructions my friend had given me. I could clearly remember i was not supposed to cross a bridge. But what about the stairs? The stairs or not the stairs ... that is the question! Alas, i had forgotten the correct answer, and i decided for no stairs. which was wrong. So i exited the platform via a little gate and there was ... no one. Okay, no problem, really, i waited. She might be late. I decided to send a text. "I am here, waiting" .. answer basically was that she is there as well, waiting. Then she turned around the corner to pick up the confused German. The saddest part about my mistake was that she had made the sweetest welcoming sign for me which she held up to the people who did take the correct exit and i wasn't one of them. So i inadvertently ruined it. Nonetheless i felt welcome from the first moment on.
Before we started our cemetery exploration tour we decided to have a cup of tea first and we went to The Great North Wood gastropub near the train station
Before we started our cemetery exploration tour we decided to have a cup of tea first and we went to The Great North Wood gastropub near the train station
I think this was "our" corner but there is a cosy couch there now
The pub was air-conditioned and so we could refresh ourselves before our tour and could get to know each other a bit better. The conversation really went great and i noticed with joy that we could talk just as easily in person as we can online.
The Cemetery
Then we headed off for the cemetery. Last year i had fulfilled a long-cherished dream by going on a guided tour of Highgate West Cemetery. And it was a wonderful tour and i was overwhelmed by that experience. I thought it was the ultimate cemetery experience. But just when you think you have seen it all, haha. This time i was in for my own private guided tour! And not only some mere 70 minutes. I don't wanna diminish last year's experience, the tour was really awesome, our guide was nice and had interesting things to tell and i was also pretty lucky with the group i ended up in. But the visit to West Norwood Cemetery was really very special! That cemetery was the second of the "Magnificent Seven" to open at the end of 1837. According to Wikipedia
"By 2000, there had been 164,000 burials in 42,000 plots, plus 34,000 cremations and several thousand interments in its catacombs"
By now it is closed to new burials while cremation plots are still available. The cemetery suffered damage in WWII and further damage in later years when Lambeth Council compulsorily purchased the cemetery in 1965 and then according to Wikipedia removed at least 10.000 monuments. The mind boggles! More about it here:
Thankfully this depletion was finally stopped but that lovely place is wounded and carries the scars of that barbarian act of destruction.
My friend knows the place well and she showed me round and focused my attention to many a detail. I learned so much, i was told so many interesting things. She told me for instance that some of the angels have the faces of the deceased whose graves they watch over. She told me that the statues sometimes come with "blank faces" and then get the features of the deceased. She told me about how Queen Victoria in her endless life-long mourning over the loss of Prince Albert made mourning and all that goes with it "chic". And my gothic soul embraces all this. (don't get me any wrong, as much as i adore mourning as an "art form", a ritual which follows a certain protocol, as much as love black clothing and as much as i would love to own a black veil myself, i fully understand that all that is not "true" mourn or grief. To lose a loved one is something entirely un-chic ... it is devastating and painful and terrible, I have been through it myself and i experienced it as a process and of course i didn't celebrate any of this.)
Sepulchral monuments were not only to commemorate the deceased. They were status symbols. I know many people don't understand my interest in cemeteries. They consider it a morbid interest, they shun cemeteries as sad places. Or they think them scary. What is scary about a cemetery? One must not fear the dead, one only must fear the living! These cemeteries are oases in a metropolis. Enclaves of tranquility and peace with fauna and flora and art! Places to stop and breathe, to pause and contemplate.
Sleep Has His House
(Necropolis in Metropolis)
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