Fun in the sun
- 4 July 2010 16:1859063This is how I spent yesterday, selling books and photos at the Kensal Green cemetery open day. We had a nice shady spot from which to watch people in Victorian dress, hearses and displays etc. Here are a few pics.
Les manning my stall.
Victorian lady checking out one of my books.
Fantastic clothes.
Wonderful old cars
Victorian style photography, yes that's me on silvered glass!
- 4 July 2010 16:3359065Keep meaning to get along, but always find out too late!! Hopefully we will pick up on the day early for next year :)Been nice knowing you :)
- 4 July 2010 17:0059071Brilliant.Nothing better than a graveyard to remind you that you are still in the land of the living.Hope the sales went well Jeane
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter) - 4 July 2010 17:1359074What sort of 'hooch' were you downing Jeane, that bottle looks a bit 'medicinal' to me.
- 4 July 2010 17:3459081Paul as soon as I get the dates I put them up on my site but I'll remember to post them here too next year. The remainder for London this year are:
Sunday 11th July - Lambeth cemetery, Lambeth Cemetery Blackshaw Rd, Tooting, London, SW17 0BY 11:00 - 17:00. I hope to be there in Victorian dress.
Sunday 18th July 2010 - Brompton cemetery, Fulham Road, Kensington, London, SW10 9UG.11:00 - 1700.
Quite Marek...or should that be quiet Marek (only kidding!)
Ha ha Sid, they had all sorts of interesting chemicals for the processing. A type of
collodion, silver iodide, potassium cyanided, ether, nitro cellulose, mercury chloride and ferrous sulphate. I had to sit still for 5 seconds whilst the photo was taken and try not to inhale that lot!!
- 4 July 2010 18:4859090What a splendid idea, a Cemetery Open Day !
I love looking around cemeteries, years ago spent many a happy hour with mother looking for ancestors in Lincolnshire. Cemeteries are such peaceful places and often have wonderful wildlife.
Kensal Green is an historic place, lots of VIPs in there, are the ones you listed, Jeane, all 'closed' cemeteries now, ie. Kensal, Lambeth, Brompton? I have not been to any of the London ones.
What wonderful costumes, obviously "if you want to get ahead, get a hat"
K.---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 4 July 2010 19:3559098Kath I think cemetery open days are a great idea. People can see the work that goes into maintaining them, the nature - flowers, plants and wildlife then of course there is the history and the kids have fun with bug hunts and face painting. It makes it all seem far less scary or creepy. Kensal Green does have quite a few VIP's that is how they enticed the ordinary people in when it opened as most wanted to be associated with high society.
To alleviate the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in churchyards, seven cemeteries were built in a ring around London: Kensal Green (1832); West Norwood (1837); Highgate (1839); Brompton (1840); Abney Park (1840), Nunhead (1840) and Tower Hamlets (1841.) Unlike churchyards, these cemeteries were independent of a parish church and were privately run. They became known as the 'Magnificent Seven'. They are all still working cemeteries although like everywhere else in the country there is less burial space available.
The costumes were magnificent, I often feel as though I was born in the wrong era as I love all things Victorian. I'll be wearing mourning dress at Lambeth cemetery next week. - 4 July 2010 20:3859103Jeane -
Wonderful. Yes, the Victorians did everything in style, as well as all the developments in engineering and design, they took such a pride in all of their manufacturing.
And 'decorated' everything, from manhole covers to furnishings, even covers for piano legs!
Do you borrow the costumes, or make them? My grandmother was a very clever tailor's cutter and dressmaker, she was working in a making up warehouse in Oldham when Queen Victoria died, and they sewed black material for weeks on end, eventually going on strike as it was affecting their eyes! She always made our clothes and never wasted any fabric - I am a bit the same I'm afraid.
The unsanitary conditions in churchyards/churches also apparently could be related to Dover St Marys church, in which also there must have at one time been too many burials, and the atmosphere became a bit overpowering during services, I read somewhere. Then they started the Dover cemeteries.
Kath---------------------------------------------------
Lincolnshire Born and Bred - 4 July 2010 21:2759112They certainly did, I love Victorian architecture too. Ha ha yes, curved piano legs were compared to women's legs and thought of as rather saucy back then if they weren't covered! The costume I wore last November for a plaque unveiling I did (pics attached below) was bought. I'm not very clever enough to make anything like that. What a wonderful story about your grandmother. I have some original receipts for the Peter Robinson mourning warehouse which was situated in Oxford Street London (where Top Shop is now.) Mourning was such a big thing then, your funeral was the most important day of your life.
I think that was the case in many small churches and churchyards. I read of one place where the church floor rose by several inches due to a 'pile up' in the crypt!
Mourning warehouse.
Me at the plaque unveiling in West Norwood cemetery. - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
5 July 2010 06:0259131jeane,these cemertry open days,do the residents get day release.
- 5 July 2010 06:4259133Always find your picture`s so interesting Jeane, and I`ve found myself wandering through a few graveyard`s in Dover. I dare say, if I`m away on holiday at all, I shall keep my eyes open at the local for anything unusual.Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- 5 July 2010 08:5559143Brian, yes they get time off for good behaviour!
Thanks Colin, there are often interesting things to discover in cemeteries. This is one I discovered based on the Rolls Royce Silver Spirit.
- 5 July 2010 20:4159208How about Transport House? I hear that's a graveyard too!
Nunhead used to have a major soccer team back in the 1800's. - 11 July 2010 21:2760013A bit more fun in the sun - I did an appearence at Lambeth cemetery open day today in Victorian style dress.
- 11 July 2010 21:4060019Jeane. You can come to my last day in a dress like that and please bring along the white one to carry me in +the 6 horse,s to pull the closed vehicle.
- 11 July 2010 21:4760021Aww bless you Vic. The white one is beautiful.
- 11 July 2010 22:0060023And so are you.
- 11 July 2010 22:3760029Jeane, both wonderful dresses, made all the more special by the wearer of course. Unlike Vic however, I'd rather you came to my penultimate day on this earth.
- 12 July 2010 08:5060053Ha ha ha, thank you Sid.
P.S I don't just turn up at funerals, I like parties, bbq's and picnics too!! - 12 July 2010 09:2160055OK, I'll have a barbie afore I go. Les can cook the sausages as I always burn them lol!
