City of London and Tower Hamlets Company

By the mid 19th century churchyards within London were becoming overcrowded, unsanitary and unfit to be used for further burials. Local government therefore looked for suitable unused land outside the spread of the city. The Corporation of London, for example, bought land at Ilford, Essex, for a large cemetery and crematorium. The City of London and Tower Hamlets Company opened its ground to the south of Mile End Road, Stepney, in 1841; the last burial took place in 1966.

The cemetery ground was acquired by the Greater London Council in 1966 and was thereafter managed by the Greater London Council Parks Department; in 1967 and early 1968 the records kept in the cemetery office were transferred to the Greater London Record Office (now the London Metropolian Archives).