How do you feel about working out among the tombstones?

Former British Olympian, Daley Thompson, has caused a bit of a stir by holding part of an exercise class in a graveyard. The class, at Putney Old Burial Ground, was featured on YouTube as part of a promotional video, and shows lycra-clad men and women getting sweaty in the sacred space.

Some have criticised the video for being “disrespectful and thoughtless”, but Giles Fraser, a former rector in Putney, told the BBC: “If there are likely to be no living, grieving relatives, one has a licence to treat it more as a park than a burial ground.”

The video has been criticised for being disrespectful and thoughtless

Wandsworth council said permission hadn’t been granted to use the space but Gavin Sunshine, chief executive of DaleyFitness, said that they assumed leisure activities were allowed in the graveyard due to other groups, including schoolchildren playing rounders there.

So many graveyards now form part of parks and walkways often used for leisurely strolls on a Sunday afternoon. So what do you reckon, should we make more use of these open spaces? Or are burpees in burial sites a step too far?