Brockley & Ladywell Cemeteries — Local services in London

I was lucky to have managed to find my late Aunt's pauper's grave after enlisting the help of the staff at Hither Green Crematorium, who gave me a map. The grave isn't marked in any way, but we were able to trace it as being right behind another large war grave. I was able to leave a single rose on the spot. Trying to search for other ancestors graves was totally impossible because of the overgrowth of grass, weeds, bushes and so on. There was no way an able bodied person could have got in there without a machete, let alone a disabled person such as myself. Having travelled some distance to find several family graves, I was bitterly disappointed. I know there are other things to warrant spending money on, but couldn't they set tasks like this for those doing community service? It's such a shame to see it all left to go wild. Now that finding one's ancestry has become more popular, you would think that it would be kept under control. I'm afraid I don't agree with the 'returning it to nature' ruse as a way of covering up not caring for it. People who made these areas what they are today are resting there. The least we could do is show them some respect by keeping it clear so that their descendants can come and pay their...

Unheralded amongst its better known peers; not one of the "magnificent seven" so-called great cemeteries of Victorian London, but actually, tarry a while as this is a very peaceful and diverting sanctuary of its own. Enjoyably unkempt and back-to-nature once you diverge from the slightly formal main pathway past the chapel. The unkempt places in these wonderful old cemeteries-cum-natural-oasis, actually do a better job of evoking restfulness and reflection, I find. Weeds notwithstanding 😉😀. As so often, a shame the opening hours are so brief. It's probably one of the best places locally for people to de-stress qnd commune with nature and for this I wish that they could find some way to open at least the wilder parts of it for...

looking for the grave of my great grandmother who died in 1905, went to hither green crematorium where the staff could not do enough to help me, I was given 2 maps by the dedicated women in the office showing the whole site and the plot I was interested in.Then a man came in who knows the site well and told me it had been heavenly bombed in the war.There was know sign of my grandma's grave but at least I know where it was. I can't thank the staff at hither green enough for the help they gave me. best...