Mixed Borders

Sam Meekings
Garden: Bunhill Fields
I was the poet-in-residence at Bunhill Fields, near Old Street Station, a
former Dissenter’s burial ground. I talked to visitors and spent the
weekend wring about the history and modern relevance of this fantastic
site, as well as the famous writers buried there. What is interesting about
this park is that it is all but hidden within the city – a little oasis of green
and calm amid the bustle and crowds of the metropolis. It is easy to pass
by. Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan and Susannah Wesley are all buried here,
but by far the most famous resident of the graveyard is William Blake, the
great visionary poet. The gardener pointed out that the site of his grave is
not actually beneath the headstone, which had to be moved many years
ago, but under a tall tree nearby. Many of the visitors came to see this
gravestone and to remember the poet, and their thoughts and ideas have
helped shape one of my poems (below). But what is also interesting is the
hidden history of this place: many of the graves beneath each cobblestone
were filled again and again, like pits. The gardener told me that in many of
the plots in Bunhill Fields, five or six bodies (possibly more) would have
been buried one on top of the other. More than 100,000 bodies were
buried in this tiny site before it was declared full in 1835. It is therefore a
place almost overflowing with the past. I was very grateful to spend such
an interesting weekend there.
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