Follow
Sydenham Cemetery, Simeon Street, was developed in 1896 in response to reports that the Addington and Barbadoes cemeteries had limited space. The first burial in Sydenham Cemetery was recorded in May 1896, before the cemetery was fully open. It is typical of older style cemeteries, featuring mostly large memorials with concrete surrounds, but it also allows for standard upright memorials and plaques on beams on the newer area. A new ashes and full interment area has been developed on the site of the old Sexton's house.
- Address: Simeon Street, Sydenham, Christchurch City, Canterbury, New Zealand
- Contains the official war graves of 41 men who served in the New Zealand forces during the First World War and who died before 1 September 1921.
- Sydenham Cemetery Plans: https://canterburystories.nz/collections/maps-plans/cemeteries/syde...
- Up to 1000 bodies of former psychiatric patients at Sunnyside psychiatric hospital are lying in unmarked graves in the cemetery – their names unknown with records restricted for 100 years. Sunnyside opened in 1863 as Christchurch’s first “mental asylum”. It was closed in 1999 and all its buildings were eventually demolished. Many patients were poorly treated, and the extent and depth of the inhumane care has been revisited as part of the Abuse in Care Inquiry.