St Mary's Churchyard, including Church Field

The churchyard is on sloping ground and was extended in 1862 when an adjacent tithe barn dating from Georgian times was dismantled. The enclosing wall dates from the C18th or earlier; the tombs date from the early C18th and include several large monuments, many of which are listed, making Wimbledon churchyard among the highest concentration of listed monuments in Greater London. Now closed to burials apart from those in existing family plots, the churchyard has a circular Garden of Remembrance for cremated ashes to the north of the church.  

The churchyard contains graves of leading parishioners connected to St Mary's Church, such as Samuel Mason, carpenter; William Terry and William Jennings, bricklayers who built the Georgian church, and William Watney, brewer; the oldest memorial dated 1662 is on the vestry wall  commemorating Mr J Simpson, Minister. A number of the fine tombs in the churchyard commemorate local dignitaries such as members of the Spencer family and the Marryat family, whose memorial is north of the Baptistery and has the family crest of a vulture and ram's head. The Marryats lived at Wimbledon House, Parkside from 1812-54, a large house on a 40.5-hectare estate just north of the village. Mrs Charlotte Marryat (d.1854), an American from Boston, had married Joseph Marryat MP, Chairman of Lloyds, and after his death in 1824 she spent the remainder of her life carrying out good works for the community. She was the mother-in-law of Henry Lindsay, Vicar of St Mary's, and her son was the novelist Captain Frederick Marryat. Near the Marryat family grave is a large pyramid of Portland stone in memory of Gerard de Visme (d.1797) who lived at Wimbledon Lodge, Southside. He left money for the annual repair of his tomb and for bread to be given to the poor 'in the winter months'. Opposite the south porch are two large Spencer tombs, one of the Countess of Lucan and the other of the Second Earl's daughter, Lady Georgiana Quinn who, at the age of 28, died in childbirth. Other notable people buried here include James Perry (d.1821), owner and editor of 'The Morning Chronicle' who owned a corn mill on the Wandle, his house now the site of Wandle Park (q.v.). Perry's memorial in the church is by the sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott; and Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1891), Chief Engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works and responsible for constructing the Embankment, whose mausoleum is in the east of the churchyard. The Bazalgette Mausoleum was first built by Jesse Gibson of Hackney for John Anthony Rucker (d.1804), a banker, merchant and slave-owner with plantations in Grenada, whose nephew Daniel Henry Rucker inherited his estates and sold them after the 1807 Slave Trade Act. It appears that Bazalgette purchased this mausoleum for his family after the death of his son Charles Norman, at a time when the churchyard was full, and he subsequently remodelled the structure, replacing a pyramid with an obelisk. The mausoleum contains Sir Joseph, his wife Maria and their 11 children as well as Rucker. Conservation of the Bazalgette Mausoleum will be carried out as part of Habitats & Heritage project, the Sir Joseph Bazalgette & The Great Stink of London Project, which received a National Lottery Heritage grant of £249k in March 2025. Habitats & Heritage is a registered charity launched in November 2020 dedicated to looking after the natural and historic environment in south and west London.

Burials can now only take place in established family graves and the circular Garden of Remembrance to the north of the church is available for burial of ashes. In 2004 the churchyard was cleared, having become overgrown over the years, and the area around the garden of remembrance was among those being replanted.

Adjacent to the churchyard to the west is Church Field, an area of open land that was purchased by the then vicar of St Mary's, Revd Leslie Wright for £250 in 1956; the land came with strict covenants that it should remain open space. A pleasant grassed area, Church Field has a memorial bench donated by Sir John and Lady Dacie in memory of their son, and is used for church events and activities, and available for hire for community use.

In 2003 the Garden Hall was built, designed by Terry Pawson Architects on an adjacent site that previously contained a small garden and parking area. The Hall is sunk into the site to keep the profile low in respect of the adjacent buildings. Folding glass doors one one side open onto a lawn to the east, and a small terraced garden with curved rear wall is to the west. Refurbished in 2022, it provides the church with additional community facilities.

Maintenance of the churchyard, gardens and Church Field is undertaken by a team of volunteers including from King's College Wimbledon. In 2022 a one-off upgrade was funded from the DCC Development Fund in order to bring the environment up to a standard that will be easier to maintain. This included purchase of new mowers, creation of a waste pile, replacement gravel on paths, works to the Garden Hall lawn and flower beds, and pruning of the holly hedge in Church Field. St Mary's Green Group was established in 2010 as part of the Church of England Eco Church programme in order to contribute to the local environment and ensure biodiversity; it received the A Rocha Bronze Award in 2018.