The other week, James and I met friends for lunch in Angel. Being a Sunday, most of the tube was subject to ‘engineering works’, so we decided to walk along Pentonville Road from Kings Cross. I’d done this a couple of weeks before, and had noticed this funny little park about halfway up, called Joseph Grimaldi Park, and on our way back from lunch (Old Queens Head – lovely lunch, but I do feel £6.40 for a pint of lime and soda and a pint of lemonade is a little steep!) we decided to have a look round.
Now, I just did a quick google about the park before and I seem to be in the minority of finding it quite a sad little place. It’s the site of the old Pentonville Chapel, and there are still a number of gravestones scattered around, or up against walls. Apologies, photos were taken on an iphone in very bright sunlight, so not sure if you can see, but a large amount of them are covered in graffiti, and the majority of them are crumbling and falling apart. All apart from Grimaldi’s grave, which is afforded the security of a fence round it. I know he was a ‘celebrity’ in his time, and we should preserve his grave, but the lack of protection for other graves in the immediate vicinity upset me a bit. I would like to think we afforded the same respect in death to everyone, but this park just…doesn’t.