I recently was wandering around Shoreditch and Central East London. I happened upon an old graveyard that was still intact. A rarity in London as most have been ripped up and turned into parks. While enjoying its cool silence under the green canopy of the trees, away from the hussel of busy London streets, I discovered that Blake was interned there. He and his wife, Catherine, were buried at Bunhill Fields (from “Bone Hill”), a Dissenter’s cemetary. It is unconsecrated ground.
Interestingly, his grave had been lost for some 50 odd years since the end of the WWII and through the slueth work of some locals they located the approximate location and errected a memorial. Many people leave coins on the stone. I assume its because the man died a pauper for his art and visions. There were other famous authors buried there also. William Dafoe, “Robin Carusoe” (very close to Blake’s grave), John Bunyin “Pilgrim’s Progress”.
[…] died on August 12, 1827, and was buried in an unmarked grave in the dissenters’ graveyard at Bunhill Fields, East London. In the years that followed his death only a handful of friends, pupils and followers […]