Cemetery Archives: Chiswick Old Cemetery

Chiswick Old Cemetery is really an extension of the graveyard of St. Nicholas' Church: a slight drop in ground level marks the boundary between the two. The influence of the church, however, spreads over the cemetery itself, with most of the monuments being plain slabs or crosses. When I visited on a beautiful Saturday in June, the place was empty apart from a sleeping bag spread out on top of one flat grave, and a small bag of personal items tucked beside it: the place has been abandoned to the dead and the dispossessed.

A few memorials do make this worth a visit: Frederick Hitch VC's Union Jack-draped boulder, and Whistler's bronze tomb, a badly-weathered modernistic slab, and a couple of finer than usual angels.