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Archway in Brockley Cemetery

This photograph is taken from the reverse side of an archway leading through to a section of Brockley Cemetery. Brockley Cemetery was opened as Deptford Cemetery in 1858, within a month of the adjoining Ladywell Cemetery to the east. The former was owned by the Borough of Deptford and the latter by the Borough of Lewisham. Until 1948, although the cemeteries were adjoining, they were physically separated by a wall. By that date the Victorian chapel of Brockley Cemetery had been destroyed by bombs, but the chapel in Ladywell Cemetery survived. The dividing wall between the cemeteries was removed in 1948 and this is today marked by a grassy ridge and a line of plane trees. A legacy of this is that while both cemeteries have a good network of paths, very few cross the old boundary. In 1965 when the London Borough of Lewisham took over both cemeteries, Deptford Cemetery was renamed Brockley Cemetery. The slightly grander monuments are in Brockley Cemetery, which is also more wooded. However, the overall interest is rather more local with numerous sailors buried here because of the nearness of Deptford Dockyard, along with such everyday Victorian inhabitants of the area as Alberta Codbolt, Horace Lermit and Philadelphia Sampson.