St Pancras Gardens

Tombstones round the Hardy Tree

A reader's tip in the Guardian includes the gardens of St Pancras Old Church in a list of the UK's most eccentric attractions. It seems an odd choice to me because the gardens are full of interest and well worth a visit on any day.


The interest in not just historical (such as the tombstones round the Hardy Tree) or architectural (such as the St John Soane mausoleum); it is also geological as shown by a web site devised by scientist in UCL's Department of Earth Sciences. (Use the drop-down menu from 'St Pancras Gardens' in the top navigation bar to get to the geological details.)

John Soane mausoleum

The gravestones feature a variety of types of rock. The Soane mausoleum, for example, is made of marble surrounding by a balustrade consisting of Portland limestone. The tall Burdett-Coutts memorial is a sundial made of two colours of granite, limestone and sandstone. 


Gravestones can be hundreds of years old so they provide a useful means of observing and measuring the weathering of different types of rock. Weathering of rocks can be caused by: chemicals - acids in rain; physical changes - such as water freezing and expanding and by living organisms - such as the growth of lichens.