St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery

St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery opened in 1868 to cope with the population expansion in Hackney in the C19th. The cemetery buildings, including its yellow brick Gothic mortuary chapel, were designed by the Roman Catholic architect Samuel J Nicholl who designed a number of RC churches as well as the cemetery buildings of St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery at Kensal Green. By the early 1980s 168,000 burials are recorded as having taken place at St Patrick's. In order to cater for the demand for burials, land was reclaimed by adding a further 6-foot layer of earth over the old graves. Among those buried here is Mary Kelly, the last victim of Jack the Ripper, murdered in 1888.

A scruffy closely packed cemetery sited on the edge of the Central Line. Few trees and the lack of coherent landscaping contribute to its desolate appearance. It was opened to cope with the nineteenth century population explosion in Hackney which increased from 18,000 in 1861 to 125,000 in 1875. The tombstone names indicate the Roman Catholic status of the cemetery, most are Irish, Italian, and Polish. 168,000 burials have been recorded and to cater for the continuing demand the land is being reclaimed by adding a six feet deep layer of earth over old graves.”

Meller & Parsons – “London Cemeteries.”

It was opened in 1868 and is one of only two Roman Catholic cemeteries in London (the other being a sister cemetery in West London, St Mary’s, Kensal Green). Buried somewhere here are Mary Jane Kelly, one of the Ripper's victims, Timothy Evans who was convicted and hanged for the murders at 10 Rillington Place but subsequently pardoned when the real murderer was discovered to be John Christie, and four of the five nuns who were killed in the wreck of the Deutschland in 1875.

Sgt Patrick Mullane, VC, an Irishman, was born in Ahmednager, Deccan, eastern India in October 1858. He was approximately 21 years old and a Sergeant in the Royal Horse Artillery when he earned the Victoria Cross during the 2nd Afghan War at the Defeat at Maiwand, north of Khandahar on 27 July 1880. He was living at 31 Coronation Road, Plaistow with his sister, Mrs E. Mahoney when he died on 20 November 1919. Aged 61, he was then working as a Writer at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. He was buried in an unmarked grave in St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Leytonstone. There is a memorial plaque in the cemetery chapel, given by his regiment, the Royal Artillery.