Bunhill, Blake and Bayes 
December 8, 2012
Bunhill fields has been a burial ground for over 1000 years and holds more than 120,000 bodies. As it is about 500ft square this is impressive. Among the rest are William Blake, Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan and Susannah Wesley. As well as a couple of Cromwell's and the Rev Thomas Bayes (1702-1761) a Mathematician and Presbyterian minister.

I used to work in an office opposite Bunhill (a corruption of Bone Hill) when I was about 22 and an engineer working for RS Components. I had no idea who Bayes was or what he did. But I used to eat my lunch near his grave.

When I was 31 I returned to university studying Mathematics under, amongst others, John C Naylor a prominent Bayesian (and a methodist lay-preacher, Wesleys london house is opposite Bunhill). John was my first PhD supervisor and made a Bayesian out of me pretty firmly.

I was in London, just over the road, for a conference at the Royal Psychological Society on Saturday and took the chance to grab a picture before it rots away completely.

More about Bunhill can be found here - www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
 
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Bayes is the large family vault in the background. Restored in 1969 by statisticians from around the world.  C-lux 2
Bayes is the large family vault in the background. Restored in 1969 by statisticians from around the world.
 
William Blake  C-lux 2
William Blake
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