The story of the Fulham Cemetery Friends

Fulham Cemetery was opened in 1865, the oldest of the borough’s cemeteries. It was designed by J. G. Hall, including the lodge and two chapels in Gothic style.

At least, that’s what all records of the cemetery since the 1950s say. Thanks to recent research by Rebecca Thomas of the Fulham Cemetery Friends, we now know the cemetery’s architect was actually the eminent Victorian architect, Sir Arthur Blomfield, born in Fulham Palace and son of the Bishop of London. (And father of Sir Reginald Blomfield, who designed the Cross of Sacrifice that commemorates the dead of both world wars, in Fulham Cemetery and thousands of other cemeteries across the country and in France.)

Rewriting the history of Fulham Cemetery was not something I expected when I founded the Friends over a year ago. (Our official founding date is January 2024 when we had our first meeting, but I put up the first poster in the cemetery in July 2023.) It is just one of many unexpected rewards, including learning the history of Fulham and meeting many lovely people in the area.

I’ve lived in the borough for 25 years, on the Bayonne Estate, right on the postcode border between W6 and SW6, on the Hammersmith side. I spent the first half of my life in South Africa, but have lived in London since 1997. I grew up on a farm, so being put to work with a spade or pruning shears was familiar from an early age, but I had little interest in gardening. However, I have loved London’s Victorian cemeteries since I moved here – the glimpses of history and the lost arts of stonecarving and lettering; discovering blackberry foraging for the first time at the churchyard of St John-at-Hampstead. 

My wife and I also have a shared love for Japan. We visited Japan for the first time in 2003 and again in 2005. Our children were born in 2007 and 2010, and the sisters enjoyed annual “hanami” picnics – a popular Japanese festival – under the blossoms of Fulham Cemetery, or having pretend weddings with the swirling petals. Most of my oldest photos of Fulham Cemetery are with them as babies or toddlers. While I’ve always loved nature, I only learned how to identify trees in the early 2000s, from a friend who was then working as a gardener at Brantwood in the Lake District. Fulham Cemetery’s cherries and crabapples, planted in the 1950s, are nearly all Japanese species.

But over the years I could see the cemetery declining – my collection of photos of the cemetery made that more obvious whenever I looked at them. The old cherry, crabapple, plum, and medlar trees that decorated nearly every path with blossoms in spring were fewer every year. This is not unusual, since they had lived their natural lifespan (only about 30-60 years). But the lack of succession planting bothered me. I thought Fulham Cemetery was at risk of wasting the legacy of the gardeners who planted these flowering avenues 70 years ago, losing the character of the cemetery that local residents grew up with. 

I wrote to the council many times over the years asking them to plant trees in the cemetery. Since 2018 I’ve been on the Tenants’ & Residents’ Association (TRA) of the Bayonne Estate. So I’ve become used to requesting trees and applying for environmental improvement grants, and over time more of the Housing and Parks officers knew of me. Gradually this also turned me into a guerilla gardener, as my desire to improve neglected spaces overcame the natural reticence to working on public land. And I learned how easily young trees die if they are not watered regularly over summer. 

The Friends of Margravine Cemetery (of which I’m a member) were also an inspiration. I walk through there on the way to the station nearly every week, and am always impressed at what they’ve accomplished. I found it hard to believe no friends group existed for Fulham Cemetery; I kept expecting to find out about one, or hoping somebody would start one. 

The final spark came in summer 2023, when the council’s arboricultural officer, Tom Bach, emailed me to say that they would be planting 36 new trees in the cemetery that winter, and asking my input on species and locations. I was overjoyed that the decline in the cemetery’s trees finally seemed to be arrested, but I also knew that a volunteer watering scheme would be necessary to ensure the trees’ survival. So I created a poster and a website and a sign-up form.

So that’s the genesis of the Fulham Cemetery Friends. (Not “Friends of Fulham Cemetery”, as that would make our initials FFC, and those initials are very much taken.) During our first year volunteers successfully kept all 36 new trees alive, we have raised funds to plant over 600 bulbs and install 10 bird and bat boxes, and we have had joint events with St John’s school and with the Fulham Society. Volunteers regularly come on weekends to help clear bramble and ivy.

Over 80 people have signed up as members so far, but at this point we are not much more than a mailing list. Our next goal is to form a committee and set up an unincorporated charitable association. We’re still hoping for a Treasurer to step forward: perhaps someone from the Fulham Society would consider the role?

Our website www.fulhamcemeteryfriends.org.uk has a wealth of information about the cemetery – its history, graves, trees, historic maps and aerial photos, original research, and news about our activities and plans. Please go and read!