St Mary Magdalene’s graveyard

Clients: London Borough of Islington

Authors: Liz Barham and Liz Goodman

The London Borough of Islington were conducting a feasibility study into the landscaping of surrounding grounds of St Mary Magdalene, Holloway Road. One element of the project was to evaluate the archaeological resource by means of a condition survey of all the standing monuments. This involved examining all the material relating to the graveyard, the 75 monuments still standing in the graveyard, the iron railings and gates surrounding the garden, and the gravestones that were removed in 1892 (currently stored inside the church in an unused vault).

The report recorded the condition of each of the monuments in the graveyard and attempted to identify what threats were present. Recommendations on the monuments’ future treatment and preservation were also made. The way in which the graveyard is currently used by local residents was taken into consideration as this will also effect the future preservation of monuments. The condition survey can then be used to create a Management Plan for the long term maintenance of the graveyard.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2005: annual review