Islington Council has promised to review the practice of communal burial, following the revelation that Islington and Camden Cemetery Services bury more people in communal graves than any other borough.
In the last year, 34 children and 32 stillborn babies have been buried by Islington and Camden Cemetery Services in this way, often with up to four coffins per grave.
The council has come under pressure to reform its burial services after a survey revealed that it was responsible for 318 communal burials over the last three years, nearly a third of all those that took place across the capital in the same period.
A spokesman for the council said: “Communal burials are offered in many metropolitan boroughs, including Camden and Islington who run a joint cemetery service in East Finchley. The cemetery is London’s largest, so we are burying and cremating more people than in other boroughs.
“Communal burials are done with dignity and compassion and there is always a service. For babies, a plot will contain up to four coffins and be arranged laterally. In effect they are separate graves ‘punched out’ of a larger shared plot and divided above ground with a little fence. Memorials are allowed.
“Adult communal graves have between four and six coffins in them which are arranged one above the other with a space between. Each one is backfilled with earth or bark and then ‘planked’ – a heavy security feature to make sure they cannot be disturbed until the next coffin is added. Again, a service is held and memorials are allowed.”
“Notwithstanding this, we are now reviewing all our communal grave procedures. Senior management has been asked to produce a report for the next Corporate Management Board.”
At Islington and St Pancras Cemetery in East Finchley, where burials conducted by Islington and Camden Cemetery Services take place, many communal graves can be seen in a remote corner.
Simple wooden crosses mark some plots, while others are unmarked. Some plots have up to four crosses jammed in together, signifying that more than one burial has taken place in the same grave.
Around these communal graves, the ground is often uneven or broken, and there are some large holes. The area of communal graves forms a stark contrast with the neat rows of well-tended headstones to be seen elsewhere in the cemetery.
Photo: Soraya Kishtwari
