I recently got a behind-the-scenes tour of the City of London Cemetery and crematorium. Don’t ask why. It’s the sort of thing I do. The cemetery, out near Wanstead, is England’s largest and stretches over 200 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. This sprawling terrain has relatively few famous residents. Footballer Bobby Moore and a pair of Ripper victims are probably the most notable. But I was very surprised to learn that the remains of eminent scientist and architect Robert Hooke are also supposedly buried here. Surprised because Hooke died in 1703, some 150 years before the cemetery opened.

Turns out that Hooke was originally laid to rest in St Helen’s Bishopsgate, a rare Medieval survival in the City, and now best known for its jarring juxtaposition to the Gherkin. Many members of the Royal Society came to this place on 6 March 1703 to see Hooke ‘decently and handsomely interred’. And there he remained getting progressively less decent and handsome as the years wore on.

In 1891, the floor of the church was lifted as a prelude to relaying the nave pavement. A grim discovery was made, as described by the local Rector:

“A horrible view…of loose, confused and intermingled bones with which the ground was filled to several feet in depth…effluvia from the decaying remains below was free to rise from the floor of the church and pollute the air.” The grisly necrocopia of bone, rags and coffin wood was such a jumble that only ten bodies could be reliably identified. Hooke was not among them.

The entire gruesome payload was carted off to the City of London Cemetery and interred in a mass grave beside a similar import of bones from St Martin Outwich. The spot is marked by the Gothic memorial shown at top. Here’s a close-up of the inscription.

It is assumed that Hooke’s remains were among those transported, but this cannot be unequivocally proved. He may even be partly buried in Wanstead and partly in Bishopsgate, a fitting end to a man who covered so many fields. Whether or not he’s interred in the City of London Cemetery, the place is worth a visit for its elegant landscaping and sculpture. The perfect opportunity arises on 19 July, when the cemetery holds its first Open Day for several years. And don’t miss the crematorium tour if you’ve always wanted to handle a bucket of used hip replacements.

Previous installments of the Scientific Tourist in London.