Warriston Cemetery

 

Warriston Cemetery, the very first Victorian garden cemetery to be laid out in Scotland's capital city, now lies neglected and vandalised. Its ancient memorials, once standing tall and proud above the final resting places of our ancestors, are now weathered and broken, choked by tendrils of creeping ivy, buried beneath a lush canopy of green undergrowth, fallen leaves and damaged branches. Lavish monuments have become victims to the onslaught of Mother Nature, wild flowers peeping out from toppled tombstones, delicate, reaching out to touch the dead yet hiding evidence of their very existence. How tragic that over two hundred years of history should be so treated, reduced to ruins beneath our feet. So what exactly is a garden cemetery? The 19th century saw churchyards over-crowded, unpleasant and unhygienic, the dead vying for every inch of empty space in which to rest for all eternity. The Garden Cemetery Movement promoted the founding of grounds in which family members could be interred, suitable monuments erected, and families walk in pleasant surroundings amongst the graves of their ancestors. Warriston Cemetery was designed by David Cousin, with burials taking place from 3rd June 1843. Edinburgh Cemetery Company had been instigated in 1840, a "joint-stock company launched as a profit-making business concern" when the garden cemetery vogue appeared on the scene, and this was their first enterprise.

Local sculptors and stonemasons were kept busy as the people of Edinburgh put these new grounds to good use. Ornate monuments and beautifully carved tombstones marked the graves of the citizens of Scotland's first city, from ordinary folk to businessmen, doctors, scientists, artists, politicians, and other historical figures. Sir James Young Simpson, the pioneer of anaesthesia, occupies a plot here, as does John Menzies, founder of the chain of newsagents. Twenty seven Commonwealth service personnel from the Second World War joined seventy two from the First World War, along with a solitary Belgian soldier, exchanging the horrors of the battlefield for the peace and tranquility of Warriston Cemetery. And then the rot set in. The Cemetery filled, profits were no more, and left to its own devices the Cemetery fell into neglect, graves untended, stones damaged and pathways lost. In the 1990s it was acquired by Edinburgh City Council under a compulsory purchase order. The gravestones still standing were tested for stability and many lowered for safety reasons. So much history lying forgotten, so many stories hidden from view. A neo-Tudor line of catacombs still there, somewhere, although the chapel that once stood on top was removed in the 1980s. The Edinburgh and Leith railway once divided the Cemetery, running east to west through its southern half. Gothic archways once marked the entrances to the tunnel, a tunnel which linked the north and south sections. But this closed in the 1950s, and like our respect for the dead the embankments were partly removed and the line is now a public walkway.

But there is hope for Warriston, in the form of the Friends of Warriston Cemetery. They are dedicated to "tidying, stabilising and promoting this endangered historic site." And their dream? In their own words: "to bring Warriston back to a state where it can once again become a source of history and culture, a safe place for public leisure, whilst encouraging urban wildlife." Their honourable work has already begun. This is indeed a mammoth task they face, but face it they will with hard work and determination. Mother Nature may well be respecting the dead in her own way, breathing life of her own whilst obscuring the names of those who breathe no more. And I am sure she will be shown due respect as hidden treasures lost for so long are revealed. How wonderful will it be to see the charm and splendour of a Victorial Cemetery exist side by side with Mother Nature at her very best. Taming this thriving wilderness will be an unenviable task, but new life will be breathed into a place where the dead will once again be respected. It will become a place of pilgrimage once more, a place of peace and solitude, history rising like the phoenix from a carpet of green. So much life exisits here already, in an area designated an urban wildlife site. Sparrowhawks, wood pigeons, owls, foxes, bats, a plethera of min bugs and beasties have made their home here, and care will be taken to ensure their habitats are distubed as little as possible. So I wish the Friends of Warriston Cemetery every success. There is a long road ahead, but the results will be reward enough for all their endeavours. How wonderful will it be to see Warriston Cemetery restored as much as possible to its former glory.