IN a leafy corner of Aldersbrook lie the remains of Bobby Moore, Dame Anna Neagle and two of Jack the Ripper’s victims.

They are just some of the thousands of people who have been laid to rest in the 200 acre City of London Cemetery, the largest municipal cemetery in the country.

The cemetery was built in 1853 at a time when London’s churchyards were in crisis.

A population explosion coupled with an increase in cholera-related deaths saw bodies piling up at an alarming rate and, with the situation reaching crisis point, the City of London Corporation moved to build a new super cemetery.

The man charged with finding a site for the new burial ground was Sir William Haywood, an accomplished surveyor who had already played a leading role in the building of the capital’s sewage system.

He identified the site in Aldersbrook, the Corporation purchased the land, and the construction of the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium began.

Current Superintendant Gary Burks who has worked at the cemetery for 27 years said: “If you were choosing a site or designing a cemetery today you would be hard pressed to find a better site or landscape. It is not too hilly and has the perfect topography.

“It’s a wonderfully peaceful and tranquil place and we have something like three-and-half thousand trees here.”

While former England football captain Bobby Moore is arguably the most famous person associated with the cemetery, there are plenty of other fascinating stories to be told about the people who are laid to rest there.

Mr Burks conducts tours of the cemetery in the summer months and is a mine of information on the people buried there.

He said: “One of the most interesting stories involving the people buried here is that of Percy Thompson.

“He was murdered in Wanstead during the 1920s by a man called Frederick Bywaters while returning home from a night out with his wife Edith.

“When it emerged that Edith and Frederick had been having an affair there was an outcry. They were both hanged for the murder. It really was a sensational case.”

The cemetery is still active, and Mr Burks says that there around two-and-a-half thousand cremations and 800 burials carried out there every year.

“As far as I’m concerned this is the best cemetery in the country,” he said. “Places like Highgate cemetery are wonderful and have some fantastic history, but they are not as visitor friendly as we are.

“I’m only the ninth superintendant in 156 years and I’m very proud of the place.”

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