The Front Churchyard — Wild Garden of the Dead
The Front Churchyard of St Mary's in Lambeth, London, contains over 26,000 burials, including the Grade II* listed tomb of Captain William Bligh and a hidden vault housing five Archbishops of Canterbury. Originally established with a wooden church in 1062, the site served as the Archbishop's palace church. Between 1790 and 1810 alone, nearly 16,000 people were buried in the churchyard, significantly raising the ground level.
London · from the walk “Bones, Gardens & Gates: The Lambeth Riverside” · audio ~3 min · Generated
Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB
- Goda, sister of Edward the Confessor, built a wooden church at St Mary's Lambeth in 1062.
- Nearly 16,000 of the 26,000 total burials at St Mary's Churchyard occurred between 1790 and 1810.
- Captain William Bligh, famous for the 1789 HMS Bounty mutiny, rests in a Coade stone chest tomb.
- Renovations uncovered a hidden church vault containing 30 lead coffins, including five Archbishops of Canterbury.
Which famous historical figures are buried at St Mary's Churchyard in Lambeth?
Take a breath. You're standing in a place where the living and the dead share the earth beneath your feet.......... Over twenty-six thousand people are estimated to be buried on this site, and the sheer weight of all those burials has actually raised the ground level over the centuries. That soft earth you're walking on... is not just soil. Nearly sixteen thousand of those burials happened in just two decades, between seventeen ninety and eighteen ten, when Lambeth was exploding in population.......... But this place is Far older than that. In ten sixty-two, a wooden church was built right here by Goda, sister of Edward the Confessor. By the end of the twelfth century, Lambeth Palace was built next door, and Saint Mary's graduated from a humble parish church into the Archbishop of Canterbury's palace church.......... Now look around at these weathered gravestones rising among the wild grasses. The front garden you see today was designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole as part of the museum's twenty seventeen redevelopment. But beneath this gentle wildness lie some extraordinary people. There's the Grade Two star listed tomb of Captain William Bligh, best known for the mutiny on Hms Bounty in seventeen eighty-nine. It's a fine chest tomb made of Coade stone, topped by a carved breadfruit... a nod to the mission that defined his life.......... And then there's one of the most astonishing discoveries in recent London history. During renovation works, contractors lifted some flagstones to even out the floor... and found a staircase descending into darkness. They attached a phone to a long stick and filmed the vault below. They were shocked to discover it was crammed with Thirty lead coffins. One of them had a red and gold pointed hat perched upon it... the mitre of an Archbishop. Those coffins held the remains of Five Archbishops of Canterbury, including Richard Bancroft, who oversaw the creation of the King James Bible. Everyone had assumed the Victorians cleared out all the burials in eighteen fifty-one. They were Wrong.......... And the ghost? Well, according to local Lambeth legend... if you dance around the Tradescant tomb twelve times while Big Ben strikes midnight, a ghost appears. Nobody has confirmed it, of course. But standing here, among these ancient stones and swaying meadow flowers, with twenty-six thousand souls beneath you... you might not want to test it.
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