Everybody who knows me, knows about my cemetery passion. Whereever I spot a nice one, I'm going to visit it - and take as many pictures my data storage card can bare. Today I went to view a (very nice) room in Queen's Park, an area close to Maida Vale. Hope that becomes my home for the following four months in London. I have another viewing appointment tomorrow, and I would have to meet the other flatmate in this flat in Queen's Park next week. Let's wait and see.
In Queen's Park there is Willesden Lane Cemetery, also called Paddington Old Cemetery. The old part is quite run-down, but therefore quite romantic too. There are more popular cemeteries in London. Highgate Cemetery is the most famous Victorian graveyard, and I will definitely join a guided tour soon.
Paddington Old Cemetery was opened in 1855. In the middle of the 19th century London's churchyards were so overcrowded that they posed a severe health risk to those people living nearby. A number of new burial-grounds were opened. As the landscaped public cemeteries in Italy, France and Sweden were admired, especially Pere-Lachaise in Paris, the new cemeteries in London were designed similarly - with tomb-lined avenues and well-contrived vistas.The creepy tree (pictured below) reminded me of a film Günter and I saw shortly before I left Germany. In this film a man goes into the woods the night before he's supposed to marry. He is so nervous that he has a private dress-rehearsal and lets the wedding ring slip onto a twig of such a tree. The twig proves to be the finger of a recently deceased girl, so he suddenly finds himself in the world of the death and married to one of them.
However, there was a happy end for me today. I stayed alive and had a nice lunch in Hugo's Cafe nearby, an organic restaurant with regular jazz nights.
Ja kumma, liebe Bettina: Da gibt es ja ein dunkles Geheimnis, das ich von Dir bislang noch nicht kannte. Friedhöfe! Abba Du wirst lachen: Ich habe mich da in den letzten 25 Jahren auch häufig rumgetrieben. Kann beispielsweise die griechischen sehr empfehlen. War da in den 80ern auf so vielen Inseln und immer auch auf den Friedhöfen. Natürlich kein Vergleich zu den englischen, die viel morbider, aber auch schöner und gepflegter sind und zumeist eher Parks, wenn auch machmal verwilderten Gärten, ähneln. Und die Motive, die Du in Deinen Beitrag gepackt hast, kenne ich irgendwoher. Ich glaube, ich habe sie bei Cor gesehen, als sie 2005 aus London wiederkam. Die ist nämlich auch so eine Friedhofsbesucherin. Ein wahres Frauending also? Fragt sich jetzt der Otti.
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