Originally opened in 1835, this little park hidden behind the old cemetery walls and campus buildings, still retains some of the old gravestones. The plaque outside declares the following:
Alarmed by the insanitary and overcrowded state of the Parish Church graveyard and body snatching, the Leeds elite bought £25 shares in the Leeds General Cemetery Company. It acquired St. George’s fields and created this fine private cemetery, where many Leeds worthies lie.
The Leeds ‘worthies’ who were buried in the cemetery include local artist John Atkinson Grimshaw and Pablo Fanque, the first black circus proprietor in Britain. Fanque, strangely enough, is probably best known for being mentioned in the song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! by the Beatles.
The park is now known as St George’s Fields once more since the cemetery’s closure in 1969, although in a way it is still a place for Leeds ‘worthies’ to lie, as bright students lounge about on the grass.
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