Gangsters, a sculptor and a toy shop owner, Douglas Patient looks into some of the notable individuals whose graves can be found in Chingford Mount Cemetery.

The Victorian cemetery, in Old Church Road, opened in 1884 and is currently owned by Waltham Forest council, which took over the site in 1971.

It is the 15th anniversary of Reggie Kray’s burial at the Chingford cemetery along with his twin Ronnie, who had been buried five years earlier.

The twins became famous when given life imprisonment in 1969 for the murder of gang rival George Cornell, and of Jack McVitie who had failed on a job to kill another gang rival.

Malcolm Billingsley, secretary of Chingford Historical Society, remembers the day the last Kray was buried.

He said: “I remember it clearly as it was on national news and all over the television.

“It was controversial and the twins were quite a cult, I had an American friend who visited me and he was really interested in visiting the graves of the twins.

“They are certainly infamous in Britain and their local connections mean people visit the graveyard just to see their memorial.”

Sculptor John Bacon who died in 1799 was originally buried in Tottenham Court Road but his remains were removed to Chingford in 1898 as the graveyard was in disarray.

His most famous sculptures are in St Paul's Cathedral, of poet Samuel Johnson, prison reformer John Howard and scholar Sir William Jones.

Another, Benjamin Pollock, who born in 1856, was the founder of Pollock’s Toy Shop in Hoxton which specialised in the production of toy theatres.

The popularity of the toy theatre declined and by 1937, when Mr. Pollock died, the shop and the Pollock family were struggling to pay their way.

The Chingford Historical Society believes this is why he was buried in a common grave with no memorial stone.

The name of Pollock lives on today as the Pollock Toy Museum, in Scala Street, just off Tottenham Court Road.

Mr Billingsley said: “Benjamin Pollock was known for starting toy theatre in the Victorian era, which is a movement which is a kind of puppet show with little characters on sticks.

“It is actually still going today, I know someone who attends meetings on them and I must say I have been to one once myself.”

“I like the cemetery and I’m proud we have it here in Chingford, there is a lot of history here and it is very interesting to have a walk around.

“I have been to a few cemeteries and there are many in London, but there is something special about this one.”