Teddington Cemetery, located on Shacklegate Lane at the end of Church Road, has an interesting backstory and some famous faces buried there.

As part of our rewind series we explore some of the fascinating history our area has to offer.

We recently covered the history of Teddington Memorial Hospital - which you can find HERE

History of the cemetery

Following the 1852 Burial Act, Richmond was enabled to form a Burial Board and let out new burial grounds. In 1877 an area of former orchard of 1.6 hectares in Shacklegate Lane was purchased from Mr Travers Smith.

A competition was announced to design the layout of the burial ground, with two prizes of fifteen guineas and five guineas.

T Goodchild was appointed as architect to the Board and was asked to prepare the necessary plans and estimates for the new buildings.

These buildings included a pair of chapels, a lodge, and a gothic mortuary. The site was opened as Teddington Cemetery in 1879.

By 1915 there was already an extension to the north, with a formal, axially symmetrical path layout in this area as well as in the old part.

Few alterations were made in the following years until around 1960 when the cemetery was extended to the north-west across areas of former nursery ground and allotment gardens.

An extension to the South West was put in place before the turn of the millennium.

Famous Graves

A number of notable people are buried at the cemetery including:

Neil Aspinall (1941–2008), former head of The Beatles' company Apple Corps

R D Blackmore (1825–1900), author, whose novels included Lorna Doone

John Sleeper Clarke (1833–1899), American comedian and actor, who lived in London from 1867

Francis de Havilland Hall (1847–1929), physician, surgeon, and laryngologist

Kenneth MacDonald (1950–2001), who played the character of Mike Fisher in the BBC television sit-com Only Fools and Horses

James Messenger (1826–1901), who lived in Teddington and was the professional single sculls world champion from 1854 to 1857

Robert John Tozer (1813–1892), one of the founders of Christ Church in Teddington. He laid the keystone of the chapels in Teddington Cemetery

John Walter (1738–1812), founder of The Times