Sport & Fitness

Do you know of a London shrine to a great athlete? Let us know

If you’re ever sitting in the mammoth East Stand at a Chelsea game, take a look through the window at the back of the top tier. You’ll be gazing down at the place where much of the club’s history is interred.

Stamford Bridge has lived cheek-by-jowl with Brompton Cemetery since the stadium was built in 1876. The Chelsea connection began in 1912 when Gus Mears, the Blues’ founder, was buried there. Mears has since been joined by other key figures from those early days, including Charles Kirby, the club’s first chairman. A leaflet entitled ‘Final Whistle’, written by Chelsea historian Rick Glanvill, includes a tour and potted history. It’s available from the Chelsea Megastore. Feature continues

Although Kirby was Chelsea’s chairman, he also played an important part in Arsenal’s emergence. Kirby was playing golf with cartoonist Tom Webster when he was struck by Webster’s stylish attire of a sleeveless blue pullover over a white cricket shirt. Kirby suggested Chelsea should play in a similar outfit, an idea nixed by manager David Calderhead but embraced by clued-up Arsenal supremo Herbert Chapman. And so the famous Arsenal white-sleeved kit was born. Chapman, the most important figure in Arsenal’s history, is buried at St Mary’s Church in Hendon.

The ashes of one of West Ham and England’s greatest heroes, Bobby Moore, are interred beneath a magnolia tree in one of the capital’s largest cemeteries – the City of London Crematorium in Manor Park. Other footballers’ final resting places are less easy to visit – Peter Osgood was cremated and the ashes placed under the penalty spot in front of the Shed at Stamford Bridge, accessible only to fellow pros and pitch invaders.

Legendary greyhound Mick The Miller won the Derby twice before his demise in 1939. He was then stuffed and put on display at the Natural History Museum. Mick has since been transferred to the NHM’s sister museum, the Walter Rothschild Museum in Tring. Another great canine-themed grave is in Charlton Cemetery, where two life-sized stone greyhounds guard the memorial of Thomas Murphy, owner of the Charlton dog track until 1932.

Numerous prizefighters are buried in London. Jack Broughton, often described as the father of English boxing due to his career as a fighter (he was a champion from 1729 to 1750), teacher (he ran a school known as Broughton’s Amphitheatre in Oxford Road, near Oxford Street) and rule maker, is buried in Westminster Abbey. The epitaph ‘Champion of England’ was engraved on his headstone in 1988.

John Jackson, who taught Lord Byron to box at his Bond Street Academy and died in 1845, lies beneath a monument in Brompton Cemetery that was described by Builder magazine as ‘hideous’. Tom Cribb, one of the greatest bare-fist prizefighters of his era, died in 1848 and is buried at St Mary Magdalene in Woolwich under a spectacular gravestone that features a large lion astride a stone sarcophagus.

The most famous cricketer of all resides permanently in south London. WG Grace spent his last active years playing for Crystal Palace Cricket Club and died in 1915. He has a headstone in Beckenham Cemetery. Other legends with graves you can visit include Frederick Lillywhite (died 1854), who developed round-arm bowling and founded the sports goods store. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery. John Wisden, founder of the ‘Cricketers’ Almanack’, rests in Brompton.

One of the most poignant graves in London is also a cricketing one. In 1868, the Australian Aboriginals were the first team from that country to tour overseas. But one of the party never made it home. Bripumyarrimin, also called ‘King Cole’, contracted TB. He was buried in a pauper’s grave in Victoria Park Cemetery, which was later landscaped as a public park in Meath Gardens, near Roman Road. ‘King Cole’ is remembered by a small plaque underneath a eucalyptus tree.

Do you know of a London shrine to a great athlete? Let us know