The London Death Train
London’s population grew dramatically in the first part of the 19th century, but the land given over to bury the dead remained largely unchanged. This, coupled with the vast number of deaths at the time from diseases such as typhoid and cholera meant graveyards were overflowing. It became impossible to dig new graves without disturbing older ones. Exhumed remains piled up in charnel houses. Interred bodies were stacked up, the highest often buried so close to the surface that heavy rains unearthed bones and decaying corpses. Something had to be done.
The solution was to establish cemeteries out of the centre of town. Brookwood Cemetery was one of the earliest and largest of these, created by The London Necropolis Company. Situated in Surrey, twenty-five miles from London, it opened in 1854, with the London Necropolis Railway taking the dead and mourners to the site. The train departed first from Waterloo and later from Westminster Bridge Road, stopping at two stations at the cemetery site, one for Anglicans and one for non-Anglicans.
There were three classes of service. First class bought the opportunity to choose a burial plot and erect a permanent memorial. Second class had less choice as to location, but family could still erect a memorial for an extra fee. The third-class service catered for those buried at parish expense. There were no mass graves for these pauper burials, however. They were buried in individual plots. Family members could later pay extra to buy the right to erect a permanent memorial if they could afford it.
Under normal conditions, hearse carriages carried coffins in separate compartments based on class and religion while mourners sat further up the train, also separated by class and religion. But the new cemetery wasn’t just a place to bury the newly deceased: recent developments in London resulted in a substantial number of exhumations to create space. During the relocation of the Cure’s College burial ground in 1862 to make way for Charing Cross Station and its railway lines, some 7,950 exhumed bodies were carried from London to Brookwood. Architect Edward Habershon, who worked on this grisly job, wrote: “A more horrible business you can scarcely imagine; the men could only continue their work by the constant sprinkling of disinfectant powder.”
The London Necropolis Company was never as successful as it hoped to be because of competition from new cemeteries closer to the centre of London and the rising popularity of cremation. And after WW2 bombing destroyed Westminster Bridge Road station, it was never rebuilt, bringing the rail service to an end. The cemetery still exists, but the company has long since gone.
Further reading:
John Clarke: Historian of Brookwood Cemetery
The Brookwood Necropolis Railway by John Clarke