I'd never heard of the Hardy Tree until it featured on television in popular crime series New Tricks!
Situated in St Pancras Old Church (not to be confused with St Pancras New Church, a short distance away) in Camden, this area was my old stomping ground when I was a student in the late 1990s. I lived within walking distance of Camden Town, and in fact still go to a dentist in the area.
The Hardy Tree came into being in the mid 1860s, as Britain's rail system experienced extreme growth, due to industrialisation and the growing number of commuters. Rail expansion directly affected the graveyard at St Pancras Old Church, and the human remains had to be exhumed and reburied at another site to make way for the new train line.
An architecture firm was contracted to perform this sensitive task, and traditionally unpleasant work is always dumped onto the lowest employee in the pecking order. That, at the time, was Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) who would later go on to pen such classics as Far from the Maddening Crowd and Tess of the D'Ubervilles.
After the completion of the exhumations, there remained the question of what to do with the hundreds of remaining headstones. Hardy derived the solution of placing them in a circular pattern around one of the trees in a spot safe from the railway expansion. Over time the tree has absorbed many of the headstones, and offers up a kind of grotesque artistic, macabre beauty.
There are some contradictions to this story- it has been noted that there's no proof that Thomas Hardy actually had anything to do with the tree named after him. Yes, he was given the job of overseeing the removal of coffins, but evidence refutes the myth that he had anything to do with the arrangement of the tombstones, and they could have been put into place long after Hardy had returned to his native Dorset. This theory springs from research that insists that the headstones came from St Giles in the Field parish, and not St Pancras. In 1854 laws were passed that enabled poorly maintained burial grounds to be shut, and apparently the gravestones could not have been brought here before 1877.
An alternative theory states that yes, Hardy placed the stones there but dumped in a random heap, and the ash tree just sprang from a rogue seed blown- or transported by a bird- into the centre of the arrangement. This theory holds root (ahem!) as a photo taken of the gravestone arrangement in 1926 shows no tree in the centre! It would appear that the ash sprouted from that seed which landed between the stones (or maybe somebody planted it there?) and thus the romantic myth of the Hardy Tree was created decades after Hardy worked there.
The Hardy Tree is fascinating and so interesting to see, and here's the chunky cross in front of it.
Incidentally, it wasn't the only time that bodies have been removed from this cemetery- earlier in the 19th century the graveyard was was known as a site for body snatching (also referred to as "fishing") by characters out to make a fast buck by grave robbing.
On that note, there are other points of interest in the graveyard. On the map, this building is labelled the Coroner's Court and the morgue lies behind it.
The churchyard was reopened in June 1877 as St Pancras Gardens, following a movement which allowed former burial grounds to become public parks.
This is a helpful map which sits by the entrance gate.
It was warm and sunny when Little Miss Misery, Macabre and Gothic made her way into the churchyard. My company was:
1 x Japanese tourist who asked me to take his picture...
3 x winos mellowing out between the graves...
2 x local nutters having in-depth conversations with themselves...
2 x Ugg-booted bottle blondes, both with a laissez-faire attitude with regard to getting their roots done regularly, both with oversized dogs, one with an oversized kid...
Here is the gardener's cottage; the first thing I saw.
St Pancras Old Church. It stands right next to the site of the River Fleet, which now runs underground. It is considered to have existed since AD 314- although evidence of this is scanty- and was used as a place of worship for Catholics, due to its relative isolation and decay, after the Reformation. It was restored, from derelict, to a working church, in 1847.
The Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial.
Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts- an important philanthropist and benefactress- laid the foundation stone of this memorial sundial which was unveiled in 1879. It serves to commemorate all of those buried in the churchyard whose graves were disturbed.
Soane family tomb, and John Soane (1753-1837) was an architect in the Neo-Classical style, and designed this now Grade I listed monument for himself and his wife.
Soane was responsible for designing the Bank of England building (although it's now mostly destroyed) which had a widespread effect on architecture at the time; and also Dulwich Picture Gallery. The Sir John Soane Museum, in Holborn, was once his house and office.
Now I got this wrong...
I thought this was the William Godwin (1756-1836) tomb, which includes his first wife, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). They were the parents of Mary Shelley (1797-1851), author of Frankenstein.
But it's actually this grave, to the left of the photo, although both William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft were exhumed and reinterred in 1851, following the removal of the graves.
They now rest alongside their daughter in Bournemouth, in the Shelley family tomb. This is another angle of their former grave, in the centre of this trio of gravestones.
Graves of Thomas Flaxman and family. This includes John Flaxman (1755-1826), a sculptor and draughtsman.
More graves, and none of them were easy to read.
Drinking fountain...
Graveyard path...
Wino corner- I edited out the Special Brew drinkers!
A May 2024 update and photo!
In 2019 a suspicious fungus had been detected on the tree, threatening its wellbeing, and overnight on 27th December 2022 the Hardy Tree collapsed.
On April 12th 2024 a replacement tree was planted. A beech was chosen, as that species of tree featured in both Hardy's prose and poetry.
And that concluded my nosey parkering for the day. I then made my way up to Camden Market. It has changed a lot since I lived here- although it was always big, it is now on more than one level. I believe they were starting their alterations as I left the area, in 1998.
Camden Lock.
Camden Town.
A view down the side...
Market view. I was tempted to have a henna tattoo painted onto my hand, but the silly cow running the stall continued to ignore me as I leafed through the design book and decided to absorb herself in chatting to her crusty friends instead, so I left.
Then the rain started to come down, so I wandered indoors for a while...then vamoosed!
All in all, a happy morning.
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