Deforesting and Developing Camberwell New Cemetery / One Tree Hill

[LewisSchaffer]

How can we stop the destruction of our greenspaces and heritage in the area?

We have been told that diggers are moving into land next to the Honor Oak Park station. People know about the Network Rail site- but this is larger and just a couple of metres away - hidden behind hoardings. When they come for the allotments or the Rec it may too late to organise the fight.

Sorry if I seem like I am screaming but I am.

Southwarks says they are doing this to provide local burial for local people - but they are not providing burial for most of the Muslim faiths. They say they can and do but this not true. http://www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/council-ignores-discrimination/4593814916

[LewisSchaffer]

We will be at the New Cemetery Gates (Brenchley Gardens) at 2PM Sunday 25th June.

http://www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/grave-robbery-for-profit/4593921824

Everyone is welcome even though this event has been called for familes who have loved ones buried in the cemetery and are concerned (rightfully) that the graves will be dug up and reused. Please join us.

Southwark is destroying and selling off this valuable land one grave, one tree, one sports field, at a time.

Photo is of a tree on the side of One Tree Hill - taken in 2015. It is now a log.

[LewisSchaffer]

The tree in the above photo, cut down on One Tree as part of Southwark’s discriminatory burial policy. The leaders of the Friends of One Tree Hill don’t consider this as being on One Tree Hill, and oddly, didn’t think it was worth fighting for.

[LewisSchaffer]

Can’t make this up:

Yesterday, Southwark honoured victims of a 1944 Nazi rocket attack with a ceremony and a plaque.

Meanwhile Southwark rushes through plans to destroy memorials and graves of war victims, possibly those very people, to sell off their burial plots.

Families and friends are meeting tomorrow, Sunday at 2pm at the main gate on Brenchley Gardens to demand Southwark respect the dead and stop their burial projects.

http://savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/grave-robbery-for-profit/4593921824

Lewis

[GillB]

Hi Rachel, no you don’t, unless rules have changed.
My mum lived in Lambeth but she was cremated & ashes placed with my dads in Brenchley Gardens cemetery.

[LewisSchaffer]

Postponed: Families and Friends Grave Protest, Sunday 25th June

We apologise for the short notice but we have decided to postpone today’s Family and Friends protest. Southwark Council told us 48 hours ago they are holding their annual families memorial service the same day and asked us to cancel.

It’s a shame as we have been organising our event for everyone with friends and relatives buried in the cemeteries for almost two months.

The purpose was to ask Southwark to stop mounding over thousands of graves, next digging up thousands of graves for resale, destroying gravestones and memorials.

We decided to cancel out of sensitivity to families attending Southwark’s event.

[LewisSchaffer]

Southwark erected a plaque on Peckham Rye on Friday, 23 June 2017, to honour 24 victims killed by a German V-1 rocket. At least five of these civilian casualties are buried on the side of One Tree Hill and are due have their graves dug up and their memorials destroyed. Looking for the right word. Cynical, chutzpah, cheek, hypocrisy…?

http://www.savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/plaque-for-ww2-victims/4593931864

[Edd]

If that is so, it sounds like just the kind of news the Mail would lap up. Give them a call?

[ChrisBeach]

sounds like just the kind of news the Mail would lap up.

That is so true, and definitely worth considering, @LewisSchaffer.

[LewisSchaffer]

Yes, we are reaching out to everyone, everywhere, to save our green spaces.

Here is a new rough cut video : The beautiful & doomed Camberwell Old Cemetery, E Dulwich.

It is only doomed if we do nothing.

Lewis
07886504221

[LewisSchaffer]

And the destruction goes on. 40 more trees are being cut down, this time in Square 38 in Cambewell New Cemetery, Help!

[LewisSchaffer]

Latest photos from the side of One Tree Hill, Camberwell New Cemetery, Honor Oak. Taken this week.

The top photo: Logs given to the Nature Reserve.

The trench in the second photo leads to Area D2, which is next to be scraped clean of nature.

Third photo: Dozens of trees cut down and undergrowth scraped clean in The Glade, looking toward Canary Wharf for only 124 burial spots.

[ChrisBeach]

So sad, but thanks @LewisSchaffer, for sharing and keeping us informed.

[LewisSchaffer]

Sorry I havent posted lately. We were in Edinburgh for the festival and then I forgot your password!
The situation is very sad. On the plus side we now have some good images to use. Now we can show tree stumps amongst memorials, of memorials toppled on the hillside in the New Cemetery, views of the acres lost in Camberwell Old Cemetery wood from the air. Before all this we asking people to imagine the devastation.
And we made the front page of Southwark News this week.
Thank you very much for your support.
L

Stop tree cutting and digging up the dead in Camberwell Cemetery /// “Schaffer is disconcertingly terrific.” Bruce Dessau, Evening Standard /// Follow me on twitter /// Go to my website /// Listen to Nunhead American Radio with Lewis Schaffer on ResonanceFM /// See Lewis Schaffer,on Tour /// Have your UK and USA taxes prepared by BritishAmericanTax.com, I do. /// Have your website designed by DesignMutt.com, I did. ///

Cemetery: http://savesouthwarkwoods.org.uk/
My Website: http://www.lewisschaffer.co.uk/
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/LewisSchaffer

[Wynell]

As I have stated previously only by people stopping the process of burying their dead will the stupid process of using good land for graves.
Perhaps the purchase of a burial site should be priced to reflect that for 70-100 years it will be occupied and unuseable for housing, recreation or wildlife.

In the past I have helped a friend who managed a couple of cemeteries cutting grass etc. I would estimate over 80% were abandoned and unkempt never receiving a visit from the caring relatives that put thrm there.

[LewisSchaffer]

Wynell
How people deal with the death of family member is a very complex issue.

You are right. If a family had to purchase land (or rent land for a hundred years) in our area it would cost many times the amount they are having to pay Southwark Council to be buried in Camberwell New and Old Cemeteries. Continued burial in these cemeteries involves destruction of inner London nature, graves and memorials, not to mention the loss of the amenity value of the Rec Ground and potentially the Allotments.

Keep an eye on what Lewisham is doing in their cemeteries. They are quiet on this issue.

[GillB]

Both my parents are in the Brenchley Gardens crematorium together & they have a rose bush that my mum bought from the above for my dad & I have continued to pay for since she died. I renew the subscription of just over £200 every 5 years. The money goes towards the upkeep of the rose & also the surrounding grounds, which I must say are kept beautiful & clean, so asking for a subscription from people for the cemetery is a good idea I think, as some people do live far away & cant visit regularly.

[LewisSchaffer]

Gill

Sorry about you loss. Your rose bush is important to your family.

Photo: Camberwell New Cemetery, Brenchley Gardens last week. Memorials have been toppled and removed. They will either crushed or dumped. We haven’t been told by the Council what will happen to them. A roadway will be built above these graves on the side of One Tree Hill.

!

[GillB]

Do any of the people affected by this know about this devastation? It just looks as no thought for anybody has gone into this.

[ChrisBeach]

Save Cemetery Woods (SouthwarkWoods)