Putney Lower Common Cemetery is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

on the edge of the

London Borough of Wandsworth Wandsworth () is a London boroughs, London borough in southwest London; it forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main named areas are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth, Wandsworth ...

between Putney and

Barnes Barnes may refer to: People * Barnes (name), a family name and a given name (includes lists of people with that name) Places United Kingdom *Barnes, London, England **Barnes railway station ** Barnes Bridge railway station ** Barnes Railway Bri ...

town centres.

Geography

The cemetery has an area of 1.21ha and is the smallest in Wandsworth. It lies on the north side of Mill Hill road (B349) between the junctions with Rocks lane (A306) and Queens Ride/Lower Richmond road (B306). The north and west boundary walls border with

Barnes Common Barnes Common is common land in the south east of Barnes, London, England, adjoining Putney Lower Common to the east and bounded to the south by the South Circular Road, London, Upper Richmond Road. Along with Barnes Green, it is one of the larges ...

and the east wall borders with

Putney Lower Common Putney Lower Common is an open parkland space in the London Borough of Wandsworth between the town centres of Putney and Barnes. It is part of Wimbledon and Putney Commons, lying 1.5 miles from the rest of the common area. Geography The common ...

History

The cemetery was laid out from 1855 on three acres of land from the estate of Earl Spencer, it was opened in 1855. The chapel building, lodge on the south east corner and brick boundary wall were designed by Barnett and Birch and built by W and R Aviss, who also have a family tomb on the site. In 1891 the cemetery officially closed when Putney Vale Cemetery opened, but burials continued until much later with the last in the 1970s. The Friends of Lower Putney Common Cemetery are a charity that 'monitor the condition of the Putney Lower Common Cemetery in the hope of providing funds for any future restoration'. In 2017 they raised money with a concert at The Half Moon pub for restoration work to be carried out on the chapel building which was in a dilapidated state. The work was designed by Roger Mears architects and the chapel was converted into a private dwelling. The project was a runner up in the 2019/2020 Alliance for Sustainable Building Products awards and a Gold Winner in the Built Environment Architects category at the 2019 International Green Apple Awards for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage.

Features and notable burials

There are five

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

graves in the cemetery of casualties of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, buried between 1916 and 1918. The cemetery also includes the graves of sculpturer

Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (8 February 1807 – 27 January 1894) was an English sculptor and natural history artist renowned for his work on the life-size models of dinosaurs in the Crystal Palace Park in south London. The models, accurately ...

(1807–1894) who designed and sculpted the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park, the historian Louis Charles Alexander (1839–1913) who was editor of ''The Autobiography of Shakespeare – A Fragment'' in 1911 and involved in the founding of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

in 1868, cricketer and barrister Sir Alfred Dryden (1821–1912) who was a descendant of poet

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

, merchant banker John Frederick Flemmich (1819–1892) who was in business with German art collector

Frederick Huth Frederick Huth, formerly known as Johann Friedrich Andreas Huth (1777–1864), was a German-born British merchant banker, who established the London merchant bank Frederick Huth & Co in 1809. Professional career Frederick Huth was born on the ...

, and solicitor and property developer Henry Scarth (1802–70) who built the Arab Boy and the former Quill pubs and the residential Parkfields area in Putney.

Wildlife

There are several mature trees in the cemetery and the tombstones provide habitats for mosses, lichens and stonecrops. Hedgehog tunnels were added to the boundary walls in 2021, these enable the animals to roam around the cemetery and surrounding commons and help increase their chance of reproducing.

Transport

There are parking spaces on Mill Hill road just outside the cemetery gates. The park is served by Transport for London buses 22, 265 and 284 which stop on at the Commondale stop on the Lower Richmond road, Barnes railway station (Southwestern Railway) is a 10 minute walk from the park.

References

External links

*
enable page on the cemetery for Wandsworth Borough Council

Putney Society report on the graves
{{DEFAULTSORT:Putney Lower Common Cemetery Cemeteries in London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Wandsworth 1858 establishments in England Putney