Be surprised at Islington & St Pancras Cemetery

• IF you take a stroll through the pastures and forest glades of the Islington & St Pancras Cemetery, High Road, East Finchley, you’re sure to embark upon a path of discovery and intrigue, with crumbling Victorian memorials nestled among dead trees, dumped bikes and burnt-out cars.

The entrance is a verdant oasis, kept hydrated and enriched with the ever-running hosepipe and sprinklers, a constant battle against droughts and climate change we see around us.

We should pay tribute to Islington Council’s flowing success in maintaining a lush green cemetery. It is a lesson to us all about the use of our precious water.

The air is filled with the sound of birds nesting in the trees and the bark of dogs trapped in security vans, presumably to keep the dead in check. The pathways and roads are overgrown, an idyllic charm.

The wildlife has free rein and scuttles through the undergrowth and the speeding motorists use the vast network of roads as raceways.

In parts, memorials lay strewn across the cracked earth and piled up like dominoes, the tracks of diggers desecrating graves and what is sacred land to some (see pictures above).

I beg you to pay a visit to this little oasis in the northern hills of London. The lush green lands are a far cry from the drought-ridden lands we are currently used to.

AN EAST FINCHLEY RESIDENT
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