Joseph Merrick, Elephant Man, City of London cemetery

Another visit to a London cemetery, but this time not one of the Magnificent Seven. I went to the City of London cemetery mainly to see the recently found grave of Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man".

I was surprised the cemetery is far from the City of London. It is near Epping Forest, close to Manor Park station, in northeast London.

Joseph Merrick was born in 1862. He had a skeletal and soft tissue deformity and was nicknamed the "Elephant Man" and became a Victorian curiosity and was paraded in freak shows. He was also a  medical curiosity and on his death his skeleton was kept at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London.

However according to author Jo Vigor-Mungovin, Merrick's soft tissue was buried in the City of London Cemetery after he died in 1890. She did a lot of research and found his death was listed in the cemetery records. More research led her to find the actual plot were Merrick's remains were almost certainly buried. The BBC has a good article on this. The unmarked grave was only found this year, 2019, 130 years after Merrick's death.

The grave is in plot 1771.

See more on Joseph Merrick on Wikipedia. And "The Elephant Man" , a 1980 film, starring John Hurt, and Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud

The City of London Cemetery holds heritage walks and nature trails.

West Norwood cemetery

Having an interest in old, historical cemeteries in London, it is my intention to visit the Magnificent Seven. This is an informal term applied to seven large private cemeteries in London, see more on Wikipedia. The first one I visited was Nunhead Cemetery.

The next to be ticked off the list was West Norwood cemetery. This is in the borough of Lambeth and was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London and was one of the first cemeteries in the world to use Gothic style.

The Gothic interior gates -

The cemetery was established in 1836 and has more than 42,000 graves. The cemetery is closed to new burials but the crematorium still operates, and cremation plots are still available. There are also catacombs, see more on Subterranea Britannica and Friends of West Norwood Cemetery who used to run occasional tours to the catacombs.

Some of the more elaborate memorials near the main entrance -

There are many prominent people buried in the cemetery, including doctors, engineers, scientists, builders etc. This is the mausoleum for Sir Henry Doulton's family. Doulton was the manufacturer of Royal Doulton pottery. The mausoleum is constructed of terracotta and pottery and is Grade II listed.

In the same area is a modern headstone to Mrs Beeton, famous for her 1861 work "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management".

Conifer shading several graves -

These are near the Beetons' grave -

I missed the grave of Sir Henry Tate, sugar magnate and founder of London's Tate Gallery. This is the sarcophagus of Captain John Wimble on Ship Path, and is grade II listed. Wimble sailed to Bengal. The carving of the ship is rather elaborate -

The cemetery is also a site of nature conservation value.

Small medical and zoology museums in London

I recently visited 3 small museums in London that have a medical or zoological theme. And they are all free!

The first was the Grant Museum of Zoology.

It is the last university zoological musem in London, connected to UCL. It is housed in the Rockerfeller Buildings in University Street, near Gower Street. Across the road is the Cruciform Building, a grade II listed building -

The Grant Museum is small, but packed with some of the oldest natural history collections in the UK, ranging from microscopic slides through to huge skeletons. Rhino skeleton and African elephant skull -

"The Grant Museum has around 68,000 zoological specimens. Notable specimens include the world’s rarest skeleton, the quagga; thylacine specimens; dodo bones and fine collection of models including the Blaschka glass models, Ziegler wax models, and Vernon Edwards extinct fish models."

A collection of bats -

Orang utan and chimpanzee -

Birds -

And a dugong from SE Asia

See more on the Grant Museum website.

From the Grant Museum it is just a short walk to the Welcome Collection on Euston Road. I actually went there because I thought it was the museum my father had taken me to when I was a teenager. That museum was full of human anatomy specimens, especially those affected by disease. But I found the Wellcome Collection was not the same. The latter explores the connection between medicine, life and art. The one I had visited decades ago was the Wellcome Museum of Anatomy and Pathology and is now closed until 2021.

There is one permanent exhibition "Medicine Man" which is display of items collected by Sir Henry Wellcome, relating to health and medicine. It shows how people have viewed the basics of life over the centuries – birth, health, sex and death.
"Explore a wide range of objects that includes a set of Japanese sex aids from the 1930s, a unique collection of votive offerings and some diagnostic dolls used by women in 18th century China to show male doctors where they were feeling pain. We also have a metal executioner’s mask from Portugal.

There are also some direct connections to major historical figures. The exhibition features Napoleon’s toothbrush, Nelson’s razor, Charles Darwin’s walking stick, Florence Nightingale’s moccasins and even some of King George III’s hair."

Another permanent exhibition is "Being Human" . This "explores what it means to be human in the 21st century. It reflects our hopes and fears about new forms of medical knowledge, and our changing relationships with ourselves, each other and the world.

Featuring 50 artworks and objects, the gallery is divided into four sections: Genetics, Minds & Bodies, Infection, and Environmental Breakdown. Discover a refugee astronaut carrying their belongings to an unknown destination, sniff a perfumed bronze sculpture that smells of breast milk, listen to an epidemic jukebox, and watch a fast-food outlet slowly flood."

There are also temporary exhibitions. The entrance hall -

See more on the Wellcome Collection.

My 3rd museum visit was to the Royal College of Physicians. They are open during the day and also have a late evening once a month. It is located near Regents Park.

The RCP has a 500-year-old collection of artefacts and artwork. There are displays of medical equipment used over the years, apothecary jars, books and diagrams etc. And large paintings of medical people throughout the centuries.

See more on RCP London and also the London Museums of Health and Medicine.