Contenido

Los muertos de Londres habían sido enterrados tradicionalmente en y alrededor de iglesias locales,[1]​ y con una cantidad limitada de espacio para entierros, las criptas más antiguas eran exhumadas regularmente para liberar espacio para nuevos entierros.[2]​ En la primera mitad del siglo XIX la población de Londres se había más que duplicado, de un poco menos de un millón de personas en 1801 a caso dos y medio millones en 1851.[3]​ A pesar del rápido crecimiento de la población, la cantidad de tierras destinadas a panteones permaneció igual en aproximadamente 300 acres "Acre (unidad de superficie)") (1.2 km²),[3]​ propagados a través de 200 sitios pequeños.[4]​ Los panteones pasaron a estar muy congestionados.[5]​ Cuerpos en decadencia contaminaron el suministro de agua y la ciudad sufrió epidemias regulares de cólera, viruela, sarampión y tifoidea.[6]​ La política de salud pública en este momento era generalmente formada por la teoría miasma (la creencia de que las partículas volando eran el factor primario de la propagación de enfermedades contagiosas), los malos olores y los riesgos de enfermedad causada por cuerpos apilados y la exhumación de cuerpos pudriéndose causó gran preocupación pública.[7]​ Una Comisión Real establecida en 1842 para investigar el problema concluyó que los terrenos para entierros de Londres habían llegado a estar tan superpoblados que era imposible excavar una nueva tumba sin toparse con otra ya existente.[8]​.

En 1848-49 un epidemia de cólera mató a 14,601 personas en Londres y abrumo el sistema fúnebre por completo.[9]​ Los cuerpos eran dejados en pilas por montones esperando entierro y aun tumbas recientes eran exhumadas para hacer sitio a los nuevos entierros.[10]​[11]​.

Proposed solutions

In the wake of public concerns following the cholera epidemics and the discoveries of the Royal Commission, the Act to fix the laws respecting the Burials of the Dead in the Metropolis (Funeral Act) was passed in 1851. Under the Funeral Act, new burials were prohibited in what were formerly built-up areas of London.[12] Seven large cemeteries had recently opened within a short distance of London or were in the process. to open, and they temporarily became the main burial sites in London.[13]​ The government sought means to prevent the steadily increasing death toll in London from overwhelming the new cemeteries in the same way that traditional cemeteries had become overcrowded.[14]​Edwin Chadwick proposed the closure of all existing cemeteries in the vicinity of London apart from Kensal Green Private Cemetery in the north-west of the city, which was to be nationalized and enlarged. to provide a single funeral site for West London. A large tract of land on the Thames around 14.5 kilometers south-east of London at Abbey Wood was intended to become a single burial site for East London. The treasury was skeptical that Chadwick's scheme could ever be financially viable, and it was not very popular. Although the Metropolitan Burial Act of 1850 authorized the scheme, It was abandoned in 1852.[15]​.

An alternative proposal was made by Sir Richard Broun and Richard Sprye, who planned to use the emerging technology of motorized transport to resolve the crisis. The scheme was to purchase a single very large tract of land around 37 kilometers from London at Brookwood near Woking, Surrey, to be called Brookwood Cemetery or the London Necropolis. At this distance, the land would be far enough away from the maximum growth of the city. projected.[18]​ The London and South Western Railway (LSWR) – which had connected London to Woking in 1838 – could enable the transport of bodies and mourners from London to the site easily and cheaply.[15]​ Broun envisaged dedicated coffin trains, each carrying 50-60 bodies, traveling from London to the new Necropolis early in the morning or late at night, and the coffins being stored at the cemetery site until the time of the funeral.[19] Mourners could then be taken to the appropriate part of the cemetery by a passenger train during the day.[20]

Broun calculated that a 1,500-acre (6.1 km²) site could accommodate a total of 5,830,500 individual graves in a single layer.[15] If the practice of burying a single family in each grave were abandoned and the traditional practice for poor funerals of 10 burials per grave were adopted, the site would be able to accommodate 28,500,000 bodies.[15]​ Assuming 50,000 deaths per year and assuming that families would often choose to share a grave, Broun calculated that even with the ban on mass graves it would take more than 350 years to fill a single layer of the cemetery.[21] Although the Brookwood site was a great distance from London, Broun and Sprye argued that the speed of the railway would make it easier and cheaper to reach than the seven existing cemeteries, all of which required a slow and expensive cart journey. funeral to carry the body and mourners from London to the funeral site.[21]​.

LSWR shareholders were concerned about the impact the cemetery scheme would have on the railway's normal operations. At a shareholders' meeting in August 1852 concerns were raised about the impact of the funeral trains on normal traffic and the discretion with which negotiations had been carried out between the LSWR and the promoters.[17] The LSWR management swore that no concessions would be made to the cemetery operators, apart from promising the use of one train each day.[17] Charles Blomfield, the Bishop of London was generally hostile towards the schemes. railway, arguing that the noise and speed of the railway were incompatible with the solemnity of Christian funeral services. Blomfield also considered it inappropriate for families of people from different social backgrounds to have to share a train, and felt that it degraded the dignity of the deceased bodies of respectable members of the community to be carried on a train that also carried bodies of those who had led immoral lives.[22][23][note 2]​.

On 30 June 1852 the promoters of the Brookwood scheme obtained consent from Parliament to proceed, and the London National Necropolis and Mausoleum Company (LNC) was formed.[24] The former common land at Woking near Brookwood, owned by Earl of Onslow, was chosen as the site for the new cemetery.[25] To prevent the LSWR from exploiting its monopoly on access to the cemetery, the Private Act of Parliament Authorizing the scheme limited the LSWR to taking bodies and mourners to the cemetery in perpetuity and set a maximum fare to be imposed on funeral traffic, but did not specify in detail how funeral trains should operate.[26]

Broun's scheme had envisaged that the cemetery would run on both sides of the LSWR's main line and would be divided by religion, with separate stops on the main line, each incorporating a chapel, to serve each section of the religion.[27] The company's new consulting engineer, William Cubitt, rejected this idea and recommended a single site south of the railway line, served with a private branch of the line through the cemetery.[28] The company also considered the plan of Broun views dedicated coffin trains as unrealistic, arguing that relatives would not want the coffins to be shipped separately from the family of the deceased.[29]​.

Internal disputes with the LNC led to Broun and Sprye losing control of the scheme,[26]​ and subsequent delays and allegations of mismanagement caused further changes to the management scheme.[24]​[25]​ In September 1853 under a new trust directive work began on the scheme.[25]​ A site for the London rail terminus was identified and leased,[30]​ and 2,200 acres (8.9 km²) of land extending from Woking to Brookwood was purchased from Lord Onslow.[27]​[30]​ The 400 acres (1.6 km²) further west, at the end of Brookwood, were designated for the initial cemetery site,[27]​ and a branch railway line was built on this section of the main line.[25][note 3]​ On 7 November 1854 the new cemetery opened and the The Anglican section to the south was consecrated by Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester.[31]​[note 4]​ At the time it was the largest cemetery in the world.[33]​ On 13 November the first scheduled train left the new London Necropolis Station to the cemetery, and the first burial (the burial of the stillborn twins of a Mr and Mrs Hore of Ewer Street, Borough) took place.[34]​[note 5]​.

William Cubitt decided that the land of the initial cemetery site was more suitable placed on a branch of the railroad to the west of the cemetery. Work began on ground and rails for the new branch in early 1854. The single-track branch was completed in time for the opening two months later, at a total construction cost of £1,419 17s 6d (about £115,000 in 2016 purchasing power terms). The union with the LSWR, known as the Necropolis union, had viewed west, meaning that trains to and from London were forced to reverse entering and exiting the branch.[28] No shunting queue was provided at the Necropolis junction, a single junction allowed Necropolis branch trains to reverse towards the northern boundary of the LSWR track.[28]

The new branch ran east of the Union Necropolis on a slope down the hill. After passing through the white railings marking the cemetery boundary, it curved south to the north to the non-conformist section of the cemetery, the northern site of the station. The track straightened and ran southeast on a level crossing across the cemetery boundary, the street dividing the northern and southern halves of the initial cemetery site. Anglican of the cemetery, ending at the South station near the Bagshot road towards Guildford (now the A322) which marked the eastern boundary of the site. 91.4 meters just south of the cemetery boundary, built in 1904-05 to serve as the masonry workshops of the new LNC, the layout of the branch remained unchanged during its operations.[37]​[39]​ In 1914 a water tower made of bricks was added near the masonry workshop, to allow the LNC's locomotives to refill their tanks before returning to London thus avoiding the need to interrupt your journey and refill at Woking.[40]​.

The poor quality gravel soil, which had been the main reason for the low cost of the site and its selection as a cemetery site, was poorly suited for the railway bed. The LNC's rails, and particularly the sleepers, deteriorated rapidly and needed to be constantly replaced.[41]​.

In the early years of the cemetery's operation, locomotives hauling funeral trains from Waterloo did not travel under the branch to the cemetery, as it would leave the engine on the wrong side of the train for the return journey.[42] Instead, the train would stop immediately after passing the Junction Necropolis, and the cars would be uncoupled from the engine. A team of black horses would then drag the wagons under the sloping branch to the two cemetery stations. While the train was on the branch line the engine would be repositioned so that it was in front of the train once the horses pulled it off the branch onto the main line.[42]​.

In 1864 the Brookwood Railway Station (necropolis) was opened on the LSWR,[28]​ immediately east of Necropolis Union.[43]​ In conjunction with the construction of the station a shunting queue was added at Necropolis Union, allowing locomotives to be repositioned from the front to the rear of the train. From then on, arriving at the Necropolis junction from London the engine would not be repositioned, but would push the train towards the cemetery from the rear, under the close supervision of LNC staff. This left the engine positioned to pull the train out of the graveyard, after which it would use the shunting tail to move to the other side of the train and pull it back to London. Between 1898 and 1904 the LSWR line through Brookwood was increased from two to four tracks; A thin strip of the northern part of the cemetery was ceded to the LSWR to allow for widening of the line.[28] Brookwood station was rebuilt, and a new junction with the western part of the station allowed trains to pass between the cemetery branch and all four LSWR lines.[37]

La Compañía de la Necrópolis de Londres ofrecía tres clases de funerales, lo cual también determinaba el tipo de boleto de ferrocarril vendido a los dolientes y a los fallecidos. Un funeral de primera clase permitía a la persona comprando el funeral seleccionar el sitio de la tumba de su interés en cualquier lugar del cementerio;[note 6]​ en el momento de su apertura los precios empezaron en £2 y 10 chelines ( cerca de £212 en términos del 2016) por un plano básico de 2.7 × 1.2 metros sin ninguna especificación especial para el ataúd.[45]​ Era esperado por la LNC que aquellos usando tumbas de primera clase levantarían un memorial permanente de alguna clase en el curso del funeral. Funerales de Segunda clase costaban £1 (cerca de £85 en términos del 2016) y permitía algún control sobre la ubicación del entierro.[29]​ El derecho a levantar un memorial permanente costaba 10 chelines adicionales (cerca de £42 en términos del 2016); si un memorial permanente no se levantaba la LNC se reservaba el derecho a re-usar la tumba en el futuro.[45]​ Funerales de Tercera clase estaban reservados para funerales pobres; aquellos enterrados bajo gastos de parroquias en la sección del cementerio designada para esa parroquia. A pesar de que la LNC tenía prohibido usar tumbas en masa (otra que no fuera el entierro de parientes más cercanos en la misma tumba) y así hasta el funeral de clase más baja proveía una tumba separada para los fallecidos, los funerales de Tercera clase no tenían el derecho de levantar un memorial permanente en el sitio.[29]​ (las familias de aquellos enterrados podían pagar después para mejorar una tumba de tercera clase a una de mayor clase si querían levantar un memorial más tarde, pero esta práctica era poco común.)[46]​.

En el momento que el servicio fue inaugurado, los trenes de la LNC estaban divididos por case y religión, con secciones separadas de Anglicanos e inconformistas con compartimientos separados de Primera, Segunda y Tercera clase en cada uno.[47]​ Esta separación aplicaba pata tanto pasajeros vivos como muertos. Esto era para prevenir la mezcla de personas con diferentes trasfondos sociales y angustiando posiblemente a los dolientes así como para prevenir que cuerpos de personas de diferentes clases sociales fueran llevados en el mismo compartimiento, no tanto para proveer diferentes niveles de instalaciones para diferentes tipos de dolientes; los compartimientos intencionados para todas las clases y religiones eran muy similares en el diseño y la diferencia principal era diferente ornamentación en las puertas de los compartimientos.[19]​ A las 11:35 AM (11:20 en domingos) el tren saldría de Londres a Broowkood, llegando a la Unión Necrópolis a las 12:25 p. m. (12:20 p. m. en domingos).[48]​[note 7]​.

los trenes de la LNC eran capaces de transportar grandes cantidades de dolientes cuando se requería; el empresario fúnebre Norwroji Saklatwala el 25 de julio de 1938 vio a 155 dolientes viajando en primera clase en un tren de la LNC.[49]​ Para funerales extremadamente grandes tales como los de figuras públicas, el LSWR proveería trenes adicionales desde Waterloo hasta la estación Brookwood en la línea principal para satisfacer la demanda.[50]​ Charles Bradlaugh, miembro del Parlamento para Northampton, fue un abogado vocal de Indus auto-gobernados y una figura popular entre la comunidad India en Londres, muchos de los cuales atendieron a su funeral el 3 de febrero de 1891.[51]​ Más de 5000 dolientes fueron transportados en tres trenes largos especiales del LSWR, uno de los cuales tenía 17 vagones de largo.[50]​ Los dolientes incluyendo el joven de 21 años Mohandas Gandhi, quien recolecto presenciando un ruidoso argumente entre "un campeón ateo" y un hombre del Clero en la estación Norte mientras esperaba el regreso del tren.[51]​.

Los trenes de regreso a Londres generalmente salían de la estación Sur a las 2:115 PM y de la Unión Necrópolis a las 2:30 p. m.; el viaje de regreso inicialmente tomaba cerca de una hora debido a la necesidad de detenerse a rellenar el motor con agua, pero después de la construcción de la torre de agua en el cementerio este tiempo bajo a 40 minutos.[52]​ Un acuerdo en 1854 entre la LNC y el LSWR dio consentimiento a la LNC para operar dos o tres trenes fúnebres cada día si la demanda lo garantizaba, pero los niveles de tráfico nunca crecieron tanto para activar esta cláusula.[53]​.

El tren solo funcionaba si había pasajeros o ataúdes esperando en la terminal de Londres para usarlo, y tanto el viaje de Londres a Brookwood y el regreso posterior serían cancelados si nadie estaba programado para dejar Londres esa mañana.[47]​ No funcionaría si solo había un solo ataúd de Tercera o Segunda clase que llevar, y en estos casos el grupo del ataúd y funeral debería esperar hasta el siguiente servicio.[54]​ Generalmente los trenes iban directo de Londres al cementerio, además de paradas ocasionales rellenar el tanque de agua. Entre 1890 y 1910 los trenes también paraban algunas veces en Vauxhall y la Unión Clapham para el beneficio de dolientes desde el Sur Oeste de Londres quienes no querían viajar vía Waterloo, pero estas paradas intermediarias fueron suspendidas y nunca reinstaladas.[53]​ Después del 1º de octubre de 1900 los trenes de Domingos fueron suspendidos, y desde 1902 se terminaron los servicios diarios de trenes y los trenes solo funcionaban cuando se requerían.[55]​.

Rates

The Act of Parliament stated that the LNC had specific price ceilings for railway ticket prices and traffic never grew to a sufficient level at which it would have been justified for the LNC or the LSWR to take costly and time-consuming action to make a change to the legislation. As a consequence, despite the effects of inflation, competition and variable costs the fares of the London Necropolis Railway never changed during the first 85 of the 87 years of operation.[56] Living passengers were charged 6 shillings in first class, 3 shillings and 6 pence in second class and 2 shillings in third class (in 1854 it was worth about £25, £15 and £8 respectively in terms of consumption in the 2016) for a round ticket, while deceased passengers were charged £1 in first class, 5s in second class and 2s and 6d in third class (worth in 1854 approximately £85, £21 and £11 respectively in terms of consumption in 2016) for a single ticket.[57] As the railway was intended only to be used by Londoners visiting the cemetery or catering for funerals, the only tickets sold to living passengers were round tickets from London.[58]​ In 1918 the LSWR (which supplied the passenger carriages for the LNC) abandoned second class services and the LNC consequently discontinued the sale of second class fares to living passengers, but continued to separate coffins into first, second and third class depending on the type of funeral booked.[59]​.

Intentionally low at the time of the railway's opening and the cemetery, in later years the fixed fares offered a substantial saving over main line tickets to Brookwood (in 1902 the 4s third class fare on the LSWR to Brookwood was double the equivalent cost of the LNC). Additional LNC traffic was generated by golfers passing by as mourners traveling to the golf course which had been built on those parts purchased by the LNC in 1852 that had not been incorporated into the cemetery.[23][60] The fixed fares prompted complaints from other funeral firms in London after the opening of Woking Crematorium in 1885, as rival contenders were not given access to the LNC's cheap trains. LNC and had to pay the LSWR freight rate (24 shillings in 1885) to send the coffins to Brookwood or Woking stations for transfer to the crematorium.[61][note 8]​.

In its last two years of operation, wartime increases in costs left the fixed rate structure unsustainable and between July 1939 and January 1941 there were five slight adjustments to rates. Fares for living passengers increased to 7s 5d in first class and 2s 6d in third class, with equivalent changes for coffin fares. These fares remained much cheaper than the equivalent fares from Waterloo to Brookwood for both living and dead passengers on the Southern Railway (SR), which absorbed the LSWR line in the restructuring of Britain's railways in 1923.[64] The fare structure of January 1941 remained in use after the suspension of London Necropolis Railway services in April 1941, for Occasional funerals conducted by the LNC using the SR platforms at Waterloo station, but the SR only allowed mourners attending funerals to use the cheap fares and not those visiting the cemetery.[65]

Relocation of cemeteries in London

As well as taking control of new burials from the now closed London cemeteries, the LNC also envisaged the physical relocation of existing burial grounds to its Necropolis, to provide a final solution to the problems caused by urban burial areas.[36] The massive civil engineering projects in London in the mid-19th century - the railways, the drainage system and from the 1860s the precursors to the London Underground - often necessitated the demolition of existing church graveyards.[67]​ The first major relocation took place in 1862, when the construction of Charing Cross railway station and its lines necessitated the demolition of the Cure College cemetery in Southwark.[67]​ About 3,800 m³ of earth was displaced, uncovering at least 7,950 bodies.[67]​ These were packed into 220 large containers, each with 26 adults plus children, and were sent to the London Necropolis Railway towards Broowkood for re-interment, along with at least some of the cemetery's existing crypts, at a cost of around 3 shillings per body. At least 21 London cemeteries were relocated to Brookwood by railway, along with numerous others relocated by road after the railway closed.

Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial

In 1929 a section of LNC land at Brookwood was set aside as the Brookwood American Memorial and Cemetery, the only cemetery in Britain for American military casualties from the First World War. As most American casualties had occurred in continental Europe and were buried there the number of graves at Broowkood was small, with a total of 468 servicemen buried in the cemetery. With the entry of the United States into the Second World War the American cemetery was enlarged, with burials of American servicemen beginning in April 1942. With a large number of American personnel based in the West of England, a rail dedicated to the service of transporting bodies operated from Devonport to Brookwood. By August 1944 more than 3,600 bodies had been buried in the American Military Cemetery. At this time burials were discontinued and American casualties were thereafter buried at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial.[69]

Under the authority of Thomas B. Larkin, Quartermaster General of the United States Army, the U.S. military buried at Brookwood during the Second World War were exhumed in January-May 1948.[71] Those whose next of kin requested it were sent to the United States for reburial,[71] and the remaining bodies were transferred to the new cemetery outside Cambridge.[69]​ (the Brookwood American Cemetery had also been the site of those servicemen executed while serving the United Kingdom, of which their Their bodies had been brought to Brookwood by train from the American execution facility at Shepton Mallet. They were not transferred to Cambridge in 1948, but were instead reinterred in unmarked graves at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Plot E, a dedicated site for American servicemen executed during World War II.)[69]​[note 9]​ Rail service had been suspended in 1941, and North Station (renamed Bar Norte after the train services ended[32]) was used as a temporary mortuary to store bodies while they waited to be shipped to the U.S. or to Cambridge.[71] Since the branch line to the cemetery was no longer in use, temporary platforms were built on the branch serving the National Rifle Association as a firing range at Bisley, on the opposite side of the LSWR line from the cemetery.[69]​ After the removal of the U.S. military graves The site where they had been buried was divided into two cemeteries for the French Free Forces and for the Italian prisoners of war.[69]

Locomotives

Under the terms of the agreement and Act of Parliament in 1852 establishing the London Necropolis Company, the LSWR (after 1923 SR) provided the locomotives and staff for the operations of the London Necropolis Railway. 1864, locomotives rarely entered the cemetery branch line and trains were generally hauled on the branch by horses. Towards the end of railway operations in the 1930s the route was mostly operated by LSWR class M7 locomotives, usually No.255.

Passenger carriages

The passenger carriages used on the London Necropolis Railway were not owned by the LNC, but were on loan from the LSWR. One set of carriages were loaned out permanently, rather than being loaned when needed, as the LSWR was concerned that passengers would be discouraged from using regular LSWR services if they knew that its carriages might have recently carried dead bodies.[73]

The original set of wagons, used between 1854 and 1899, were four-wheeled wagons designed by Joseph Hamilton Beattie. Little was recorded about the number and specifications of the cars. The same set of cars remained in use for more than 40 years, prompting increasingly loud complaints from the LNC about their deteriorating quality.[74]​.

As part of the 1896 agreement in which the LSWR would re-equip the LNC junction with the repositioning of the LNC's London terminal, the LNC demanded that the new passenger carriages supplied by the LSWR be "of quality and character not inferior to the ordinary main line of the LSWR".[74] These new carriages were supplied in the late 19th century, probably in December 1899.[74] All They were six-wheeled and consisted of two passenger brake cars of 9.2 meters each containing the third class compartments, a baggage compartment and the guard's compartment; a 10.4 meter passenger carriage divided into three first class compartments and two second class compartments; and a 9.2 meter passenger carriage divided into five third class compartments (also used as all second class).[74] Despite not having been recorded, it is likely that the other carriages were also on permanent loan to the LNC to be used as needed.[75]

This set of cars only remained in use for a short period and in 1907 it was replaced by a new set of cars of which little is known.[75] In 1917 this set was replaced by two 15.5 meter passenger brake cars each containing two first class and four third class compartments, a 15.2 meter car with three first class and three third class compartments, and a 14 meter car with six third class compartments.[76]​.

This set operated for most of the inter-war period, being removed in April 1938. It was replaced by a very similar set of carriages at this time, which was removed in September 1939 after the outbreak of hostilities to troop trains. The carriages were replaced by the former Royal Train, built in 1900-04 of the now defunct South Eastern and Chatham Railway.[78] These Ornately decorated cars were those destroyed in the bombing of the terminal in London in 1941.[78]​.

Funeral Cars

Unlike the loaned locomotives and passenger cars, the LNC owned its own funeral cars outright.[19]​ Despite this, they always painted in a color scheme that was the current scheme used by those LSWR cars (SR after 1923), to match the passenger cars and locomotives on loan to the LNC.[79]​.

As with carriages for living passengers, the funeral carriages were designed to prevent the mixing of bodies of different backgrounds.[19] Each of the original carriages was split into twelve sections in two rows of six, each capable of carrying one coffin;[80] Later carriages were of little different design and probably carried 14 coffins.[79] The carriages were suitable with internal partitions to divide coffins of first, second and third class.[80] The LNC intended to use half the funeral carriages for Anglicans and the other half for Nonconformist coffins, to prevent Anglicans from sharing carriages with Nonconformists, but in practice this arrangement was rarely used.[80] Unlike traditional Victorian funerals, in which the hearse would invariably lead the funeral procession, photographic evidence shows that the LNC would sometimes put the hearse car at the back of the train.[80]​ (because the trains reversed from Necropolis Union towards the cemetery, regardless of the arrangement used the hearse cars would inevitably be at the back of the train for some part of the trip.).

The LNC ordered six funeral cars in 1854, two of which were operational at the time the Necropolis Railway opened.[80] Their origins were not written down, although they bought cheaply suggesting that they were conversions of existing cars rather than build-to-order.[81] Many of the LNC's records from this period have been lost and it is not certain how many funeral cars were delivered and how they were delivered. used; Records suggest that between three and ten funeral cars were purchased or leased by the LNC in the early years of operation.[82]

As part of the agreement during the relocation of the London terminus, two new hearse carriages were delivered to the LNC by the LSWR in 1899. in use until the closure of the Necropolis Railway.[73] One of the carriages was destroyed in the bombing of the London terminus in 1941; the other was transferred to the SR and remained in use until at least 1950. The former Royal Train brought into passenger service on the London Necropolis Railway in 1939 had a large amount of luggage space and it is likely that when funeral traffic was light the funeral carriages were not used and the coffins were carried in the luggage space.

Bajo en consejo de William Cubitt las dos estaciones en el cementerio fueron construidas como estructuras temporales, con la expectativa de que necesitarían se reconstruidas una vez que el ferrocarril fuera operacional y que los problemas operando el ferrocarril de esta naturaleza única se resolvieran.[32]​ Ambas fueron diseñadas por Sydney Smirke, quien presentó sus diseños a la LNC en marzo de 1854.[32]​.

Cada estación fue construida como edificios de un piso en un explanada cuadrada. El lado adyacente a la línea del ferrocarril se dejó abierta, y aulas se extendían del edificio a lo largo de la plataforma en cada lado. Además de las caras de las plataformas de ladrillo, chimeneas y fundaciones las estaciones fueron construidas enteramente de madera.[32]​ Cada estación tenía una recepción de primera clase y una ordinaria para dolientes, un cuarto de descanso de primera clase y uno ordinario, y un set de apartamentos para el personal de la LNC.[32]​ Los cuartos de descanso en ambas estaciones tenían licencia para vender alcohol.[83]​[note 10]​ El personal de los trenes generalmente esperaría en estos cuartos hasta que los trenes estuvieran listos para regresar a Londres y en al menos una ocasión (el 12 de enero de 1867) el conductor se puso tan borracho que el fogonero tuvo que manejar el tren de regreso a Londres.[84]​ Este incidente incitó a una queja del LSWR y desde ese entonces la LNC proveyó al personal con comida gratis con tal de que no bebieran más de una pinta de cerveza.[84]​.

A mediados de 1855 se excavaron bodegas por debajo de las estaciones y la recepción de ataúdes en cada estación fueron convertidas en "cuartos de espera de pobres".[85]​ Ninguna estación estaba equipada con gas o electricidad; durante su existencia los edificios eran alumbrados con lámparas de aceite y gamas de carbón eran usadas para calentar y cocinar.[86]​[note 11]​Las fachadas de las plataformas estaban incorporadas con un margen adicional, con el largo de un ladrillo de hondo y la anchura de la explanada.[32]​ Este margen facilitaba la descarga de ataúdes desde los niveles más bajos de los vagones fúnebres.[87]​[88]​.

En el arribo a las estaciones los ataúdes usualmente se descargarían en un féretro hecho a mano y jalado por el personal de LNC a la capilla apropiada.[87]​ Mientras esto ocurría los dolientes eran escoltados a los cuartos de espera de la estación.[52]​ En el arribo a las capillas los funerales de primera y segunda clase generalmente tendrían un servicio breve (funerales de tercera clase tenían un solo servicio en la capilla apropiada para todos aquellos siendo enterrados).[87]​ Para aquellos entierros donde el servicio funeral ya se había llevado a cabo en una parroquia o iglesia o en la terminal de LNC en Londres los ataúdes serían llevados directo del tren a la tumba.[89]​.

North Station

North Station, serving Catholics, Parsis, Jews and Nonconformist Christians as well as some groups with dedicated plots in the North Cemetery such as actors and Odd fellows, was the first station of the branch.[87]​[90]​ At the opening of the cemetery North Station incorporated the quarters of James Bailey, superintendent at the Nonconformist cemetery.[85]​ In 1861 Bailey became the sole superintendent and moved to a cottage outside the grounds. and his apartment was given to Richard Lee, a cemetery caretaker. Census records show that Lee lived at North Station, until 1865 with his mother Ann and then with his wife Charlotte, until at least 1871.[85] A number of cemetery staff lived in the station apartment until the 1950s. By this time the railway itself had closed but the station's refreshment kiosk remained open.[91] Stairs led the way from the 64 meter platform to the chapel, at the top of the hill behind the station.[71]

Between 1942 and 1944 a large number of Allied service personnel were buried in the military section of Brookwood Cemetery. Under the authority of Thomas B. Larkin, Quartermaster General of the United States Army, 3,600 bodies of American military personnel were exhumed in January-May 1948 and sent to the United States for reburial. Railroad service had been suspended in 1941 and North Station (renamed North Bar after rail services ended[32]) was used as a mortuary to store these bodies while they waited to be shipped to the United States.[71]

On the retirement of Mr and Mrs Dendy in 1956, who operated the refreshment kiosk in the station building from 1948 to 1956 and lived in the station apartment, the building was abandoned.[71] It was demolished in the 1960s due to dry rot.[71]

South Station

The design of the South Station was very similar to that of the North Station. Unlike the platform stairs at North Station, the South Station platform had a ramp leading to the Anglican chapel on the northern part of the platform.[71] A shed adjacent to the station stored coffins, used to transport coffins around the large South cemetery.[71] At the time the branch line opened the South Station platform was only 39 meters long, much shorter than the station's 64 meter platform. North.[86]​ At some point the platform was greatly extended to the South of the station building to a total length of 78 meters, allowing discreet unloading of equipment without disturbing station users.[86]​.

At the time the apartment at the station opened it housed George Buppel, the superintendent of the Anglican cemetery. As with North Station, once James Bailey became sole superintendent in 1861 the use of the apartment was allowed to the cemetery caretaker and it housed a succession of cemetery staff over the years. After the suspension of railway services in 1941 the building was renamed the South Bar,[32] and remained in use as a refreshment kiosk.[86] The last operators of the kiosk, Mr and Mrs Ladd, retired in the late 1960s and from then onwards the station building was used as a cemetery warehouse.[86] Around half of the building was destroyed by fire in September 1972.[86]​ The building was popular with railway and architectural enthusiasts as a distinctive piece of Victorian railway architecture, but despite a major campaign to preserve the surviving sections of the station building (as well as the platform) they were demolished shortly afterwards.[83][86] By the time of its demolition the "temporary" structure was 118 years old.[83]​.

Brookwood Station

At the time of the cemetery opening, the nearest railway station other than those on the cemetery branch was Woking station 4 miles away. As only one train a day ran from London to the cemetery stations and even that train only ran when funerals were scheduled, access to the cemetery was difficult for mourners and LNC staff.[83] Although in the negotiations for the creation of the cemetery the LSWR had told the LNC that they planned to build a station for the main line near the cemetery, they had not done so.[92]

In 1863, with the cemetery fully operational and a new asylum planned near Brookwood likely increasing traffic, the LSWR agreed to build a station on the main line at Brookwood, along with improvements to the Union Necropolis and freight concourse, provided the LNC provided sufficient land and built the station road and caretaker's house for the new station.[92] The new station, called Brookwood (Necropolis) railway station (the suffix was gradually dropped), opened on June 1, 1864.[92][93] A substantial nearby town grew up around the north side (non-cemetery portion) of the new station, and the station building (on the north side of the tracks) was enlarged in 1890.[92] In conjunction with this work, a branch line was added in 1890 from a platform bay to the National Rifle Association firing range in Bisley, running west to north of the LSWR main line before curving north to Bisley.[94]​[95]​.

In 1903, when the LSWR tracks quadrupled, a major reconstruction of the station was needed. The low platform (west boundary) was demolished, and a new 175 meter platform was built, along with a second station building overlooking the cemetery, from where a foot path led across the cemetery branch tracks to the cemetery.[92]​.

Un sitio para la terminal de Londres cerca de Waterloo fue sugerido por Sir Richard Broun. Su proximidad con el Támesis significaba que los cuerpos podrían ser transportados de manera barata a la terminal por el agua desde la mayoría de Londres, y el acceso al área era fácil desde ambas partes Norte y Sur del Río por la calle. Los arcos del enorme viaducto de ladrillos cargando el LSWR hacia el Puente de la Estación Waterloo (ahora la estación de Waterloo en Londres) fueron fácilmente convertidos en mortuorios. Broun también sentía que el viaje fuera de Londres desde el puente de Waterloo sería menos angustioso para los dolientes; mientras que la mayoría de las rutas de riel fuera de Londres iban a través de túneles y cortes hondos a través de áreas con poblaciones densas, en este momento el desarrollo urbano de lo que ahora es el Sur de Londres no había tomado lugar y la ruta de LSWR iba casi por completo a través de paisajes y campos.[96]​ La LNC también contemplaba tomar control sobre la antigua terminal de el LSWR en la estación de ferrocarril Nine Elms (que después de la apertura de 1848 de la conveniente Estación del Puente de Waterloo fue usada solo para tráfico de bienes, trenes alquilados para llevar migrantes a Norteamérica,[97]​ y los trenes privados de la familia real) como ya sea la terminal principal o secundaria.[98]​[99]​ A pesar de las objeciones de residentes locales preocupados por los efectos de grandes cantidades de cuerpos potencialmente siendo almacenados en grandes áreas residenciales,[30]​ en marzo de 1854 la LNC aceptó una sola terminal en Waterloo y compró un terreno entre la Calle del Puente Westminster y la Calle York (ahora Calle Leake) para el sitio.[100]​ El arquitecto William Tite y el Ingeniero William Cubbit realizaron un diseño para la estación, el cual fue aprobado en junio de 1854.[96]​.

First London terminal (1854–1902)

Tite and Cubbit's design was based around a three-story main building,[101] separated from the main LSWR viaduct by a private access under the LNC twin lines, intended to allow mourners to arrive and leave discreetly and avoid the need for hearses stopping on public roads.[102] The building housed two mortuaries, the LNC boardroom and funeral workshops, and a series of separate waiting rooms for those attending first, second and third class funerals.[103]​ A steam elevator raised coffins from the lower floors to the level of the upper platform.[104][note 12]​ Although the original London terminal did not have its own chapel, on some occasions mourners could not or would not make the journey to a ceremony at Brookwood but for personal and religious reasons could not carry out the funeral service in a church in London. On these occasions one of the waiting rooms could be used as an improvised chapel for the funeral.[105]​.

As the station site was adjacent to the LSWR viaduct arches, it blocked any increase in the number of lines serving Waterloo station (renamed Waterloo Bridge Station in 1886). Urban growth in the area of ​​what is now South London, through which trains from Waterloo ran, led to congestion at the station and in 1896 the LSWR formally submitted to the LNC a proposal to provide the LNC with a new station in exchange for the existing terminal site. The LNC agreed to the proposals, in exchange for ceding control of the design of the new station to the LNC and renting the new station to the LNC for a symbolic rent in perpetuity, providing new rolling stock, removing any limit on the number of passengers using the Necropolis service, and providing free transportation of rolling stock and equipment to be used in the cemetery.[106] Although the LSWR were not at all happy with what they had considered to be the demands. excessive,[107]​ In May 1899 the companies signed an agreement in which the LSWR gave in to all the LNC's demands. In addition the LSWR paid £12,000 in compensation (about £1.22 million in 2016 terms) for the inconvenience of relocating the LNC station and its offices,[108] and agreed that mourners returning from the cemetery could travel on any LSWR train to Waterloo, Vauxhall or Clapham Union.[58]

Second London Terminal (1902–1941)

A site for the replacement terminal was purchased by the LSWR in 1899, to the south of the existing site and on the track side of Westminster Bridge.[109] It was completed on 8 February 1902,[109] and the LSWR viaduct was widened to serve a greatly expanded Waterloo station, destroying any trace of the original LNC terminal.[110]

The new building was designed to be attractive and modern in contrast to the traditional gloomy decoration associated with a funeral home.[111] A narrow four-story building on Westminster Bridge Road housed the LNC's offices. Behind him was the main terminal; this had a third-class communal waiting room,[112] mortuaries and warehouses,[111] LNC workshops,[113] and a sumptuous oak-paneled Ardent Chapel, intended for mourners unable to make the journey to Brookwood to pay respects to their deceased.[113] This building led to two platforms, lined with waiting rooms and a ticket office.[113]

Destruction

During the Second World War Waterloo station near the Thames bridges was a significant target for bombing and there were several near misses on the station during the aerial bombardment of London in 1940-41. Although there were several interruptions to the Necropolis railway service due to enemy action on parts of the line, Necropolis station was undamaged during the early war campaign. bombings.[112]​ During the night of 16-17 April 1941, in one of the last major air raids on London,[note 13]​ bombs fell repeatedly in the Waterloo area. The rolling stock docked on the Necropolis siding was set on fire, and the branch arch connecting the main line to the Necropolis terminal was damaged, but the terminal building itself remained intact.[114]

At 10:30 p.m. m. Multiple incendiary devices and high-impact bombs struck the center section of the terminal building. While the office building and platforms survived, the workshops, sidewalk, and Ardente Chapel were destroyed, along with the third-class waiting room.[114]​[note 14]​[115]​ The railroad's Southern division engineer inspected the damage at 2:00 p.m. m. on April 17 and its report simply said "the Necropolis buildings were demolished."[115]​ On May 11, 1941 the station was officially declared closed.[114][note 15]​.

The last group recorded for a funeral carried on the London Necropolis Railway was that of Chealse pensioner Edward Irish (1868-1941), buried on 11 April 1941.[54]​[note 16]​ The Southern Railway offered the LNC temporary use of platform 11 or 12 at Waterloo station to allow the service to continue,[54]​ but refused to let The LNC continued to sell cheap tickets to visitors traveling to and from the cemetery stations other than those involved in a funeral that same day, meaning that those visiting the cemetery other than relatives of the funeral had very little reason to choose the LNC's irregular and infrequent trains over the fast and frequent SR service to Brookwood. 11:57 AM to Brookwood (the SR service closest to the LNC's traditional departure time), but the SR administration, themselves under severe financial pressures due to wartime, refused to promise any other commitment.[118]​.

In September 1945, after the end of hostilities, the directors of the LNC met to consider whether to rebuild the terminus and reopen the London Necropolis Railway. Although the main line from Waterloo to Brookwood had remained in use throughout the war and was in good condition, the branch line from Brookwood to the cemetery had been largely unused since the destruction of the terminus in London. With the cemetery soil causing deterioration to the branch even though it had been in use and regularly maintained, the branch line was in deplorable condition.

Although the original promoters of the scheme had envisaged Brookwood Cemetery becoming the main or only cemetery, the scheme had never been as popular as they had hoped.[53] In the original proposal, Richar Broun had calculated that in its first century of operation the cemetery would have seen around five million burials at a rate of 50,000 a year, of which the vast majority would have used the railway.[15] In reality at the time of the last train running on 11 April By 1941, almost 87 years after opening, only 203,041 people had been buried in the cemetery.[54] Before the outbreak of hostilities, the increased use of motorized track for transport had damaged the railway's usefulness for both the LNC and the Southern Railway.[110] Faced with the costs of rebuilding the cemetery branch line, building a new London terminus and replacing rolling stock damaged or destroyed by air raid, the Directors concluded that "past experiences and present changing conditions made the operation of the Necropolis private train obsolete."[114] In mid-1946 the LNC formally informed the SR that the Westminster Bridge track would not be reopened.[116]

The decision prompted complicated negotiations with the SR over the future of the LNC's London facilities.[114] In December 1946 the directors of both companies finally reached an agreement.[119]The railway-related portions of the terminal site (waiting rooms, caretaker's apartment and the platforms themselves) would pass directly into the ownership of the SR, while the remaining surviving portions of the site (the office block on the Westminster Bridge track, the entrance footpath and the ruined central portion of the site) would pass to the LNC to use or dispose of as they saw fit.[114] The LNC sold the site to the British Humane Association in May 1947 for £21,000 (about £741,000 in 2016 terms) and the LNC offices were transferred to the superintendent's office in Brookwood.[114][120][note 17] The SR continued to use the surviving sections of the track as occasional sidings into the 1950s, before removing all that remained of this section at the site.[115]

While most of the LNC's businesses now operated on normal tracks, an agreement on 13 May 1946 allowed the LNC to use SR services from Waterloo station to Brookwood for funerals, subject to the condition that if the service became overused the SR (British Railways after 1948) reserved the right to restrict the number of funeral groups on any train.[42] Although one of the LNC funeral cars had survived the bombing and were unlikely to be used again, and the coffins were carried in the luggage spaces of the SR cars.[42] The coffins were either sent to Brookwood ahead of the funeral party and transported by normal rail to one of the mortuaries at the unused stations at the cemetery or traveling on the same SR train as the funeral party to Brookwood and being transported from the station. Brookwood to burial site or overland chapel.[42]​.

Although the LNC proposed converting the cemetery branch into a large avenue running from Brookwood station through the cemetery, this never happened.[41]​ The rails and sleepers on the branch were removed by 1947,[41]​ and the track bed was converted to dirt road and footpaths.[121]​[note 18]​ The switch line and stub of the branch line west of Brookwood station remained operational as tracks. dead, before being dismantled on November 30, 1964.[41] After the closure of the branch, the buildings of the two cemetery stations remained open as refreshment kiosks and were renamed Bar Norte and Sur.[32]​.

Después de la nacionalización de los Ferrocarriles Británicos de 1947, el uso del ferrocarril para transportar ataúdes a Brookwood se fue en picada. Nuevos procedimientos operativos requerían que los atáudes fueran llevados en vagones separados de otras cargas; como servicios regulares a la estación Brookwood usaban unidades eléctricas múltiples los cuales no tenían vagones para bienes, ataúdes para Brookwood tuvieron que ser enviados a Woking y después llevados por tierra por la última parte del camino, o un tren especial tenía que ser alquilado. El último funeral por ferrocarril llevado a cabo por British Rail en cualquier parte fue el de Lord Mountbatten en septiembre de 1979,[123]​ y desde el 28 de marzo de 1988 British Rail formalmente cesó el envío de ataúdes por completo.[124]​ Desde Mountbatte, el único funeral por ferrocarril llevado a cabo en el Reino Unido ha sido el del exsecretario General de la National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, Jimmy Knapp, llevado desde Londres a Kilmarnock para su entierro en agosto del 2001.[125]​.

Seasons

Most of the site of the 1902 London terminus was rebuilt with new office developments in the years following the end of the Second World War, but the office building on Westminster Bridge Road, above the former entrance to the station, remains relatively unaltered on the exterior although the words "London Necropolis" engraved in the stone above the entrance have been covered.[110] Refurbishment and cleaning restored the building's facade in the 1980s. an appearance similar to that at the time of its construction[110] Apart from iron columns on Newnham Terrace which once supported the Necropolis railway tracks[110] and a surviving section of the internal entrance used as a car park,[110] the Westminster Bridge Road building is the only surviving part of the Necropolis railway in London.[111]

Brookwood station on the former LSWR line (now the South Western Main Line and the Alton Line) is little changed since its expansion and reconstruction in 1903.[121] It remains in use by travelers from the town that has grown up north of the railway line and by visitors to the cemetery south of the line.[121] A small railway memorial in the London Necropolis consisting of a small part of the track on the former line was erected in 2007 outside the South entrance (cemetery side) of the station.[121]​.

The North Station site has changed significantly. The ornate mausoleum of Sharif Al-Huseein Ben Ali (d. 1998) is directly opposite the platform remains.[126] Operators of the Shia Islamic section of the cemetery have planted Leylandii along the boundary of the cemetery section, which includes the station's North platform. Unless the trees are removed, the remains of the station will eventually become hidden remains destroyed by overgrowth.[126]​.

The land surrounding the site of South Station and the station's two Anglican chapels were redundant after the railway closed. As part of the London Necropolis Act of 1956 the LNC obtained Parliamentary consent to convert the disused original Anglican chapel into a crematorium, using the new chapel for new funeral services and the station building for storage of coffins and a rest room for those attending cremations.[127] Suffering from cash flow problems and distracted by the succession of hostile takeover auctions, the LNC management never proceeded with the scheme and the buildings fell into disuse.[127] The station was demolished after being damaged by fire in 1972, although the platform remained intact.[86]

Since 1982 the site of South Station has been owned by the St. Edward Brotherhood, and forms part of a Russian Orthodox Monastery.[126] The original Anglican chapel is used as a visitor center and living quarters for the monastery, while the larger Anglican chapel built in 1908-09 immediately to the North of the Station is now the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Edward the Martyr, and houses the relics and belongings of Edward the Martyr. martyr, King of England from 975-978 AD.[128]​ The site of the former station building is now a main building of the monastery, while the platform remains intact and now marks the boundaries of the monastery compound.[128]​.

Brookwood Cemetery and the LNC

The LNC continued to lobby the SR and its 1948 successor British Railways into the 1950s on the issue of cheap fares for visitors to the cemetery, but they were unable to reach an agreement.[124] In 1957 the Southern Region of British Railways considered allowing the LNC to sell discounted fares of 7s 6d (compared to the standard fare of 9s 4d) for day round tickets of London to Brookwood. By this time most visitors were traveling by land. The LNC felt that the relatively minor difference between fares would not be sufficient to attract visitors back to the railway, and the proposal was abandoned.[124]

With the area around Woking by this time becoming heavily populated, the LNC's lands had become highly valuable properties, and from 1955 onwards the LNC became the target of repeated hostile takeover auctions by speculative landowners.[127] In January 1959 the Property Alliance Company announced the successful takeover of the London Necropolis Company, bringing down over a century of independence.[129] The Property Alliance was a property company with little interest in the funeral business, and income from burials was insufficient to maintain the cemetery lands. Brookwood Cemetery went into decline and the cemetery began to return to nature.[129] This trend continued under a succession of subsequent owners.[130]

The Brookwood Cemetery Act of 1975 authorized the owners of the cemetery (at the time Maximilian investors) to sell excess land within the cemetery boundaries, leading to the construction of a major office development on the site of the former Superintendent's office, near the former crossing level between the North and South cemeteries.[126] The masonry works remained operational until the early 1980s, and were then converted into buildings of offices and called Stonemason Court.[128]​ In March 1985 the cemetery was purchased by Ramadan Güney, whose family still owns the cemetery until 2011. The Guney family embarked on a program to encourage new burials in the cemetery, and to slowly clear neglected sections of the cemetery.[131][132]​.

While it was never successful as planned, Brookwood Cemetery remains the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in the world. Although it was not the only railway dedicated to funerals, the London Necropolis Railway was the first, longest-lasting and by far the best known.

As well as forming a key element of Basil Copper's novel Necropolis (1980),[134] the railway and cemetery received great attention after the publication (2002) of Andrew Martin's novel, The Necropolis Railway. Both books were critically acclaimed and led to increased public interest in The London Necropolis Company and its Railway operations.[135]

On 31 July 2015, the first episode of the third series of the BBC television drama, Ripper Street, highlighted a collision between the main line locomotive and the LNC train which had been put on the wrong track by criminals.

Grades.

References.

Literature.

Contenido

Los muertos de Londres habían sido enterrados tradicionalmente en y alrededor de iglesias locales,[1]​ y con una cantidad limitada de espacio para entierros, las criptas más antiguas eran exhumadas regularmente para liberar espacio para nuevos entierros.[2]​ En la primera mitad del siglo XIX la población de Londres se había más que duplicado, de un poco menos de un millón de personas en 1801 a caso dos y medio millones en 1851.[3]​ A pesar del rápido crecimiento de la población, la cantidad de tierras destinadas a panteones permaneció igual en aproximadamente 300 acres "Acre (unidad de superficie)") (1.2 km²),[3]​ propagados a través de 200 sitios pequeños.[4]​ Los panteones pasaron a estar muy congestionados.[5]​ Cuerpos en decadencia contaminaron el suministro de agua y la ciudad sufrió epidemias regulares de cólera, viruela, sarampión y tifoidea.[6]​ La política de salud pública en este momento era generalmente formada por la teoría miasma (la creencia de que las partículas volando eran el factor primario de la propagación de enfermedades contagiosas), los malos olores y los riesgos de enfermedad causada por cuerpos apilados y la exhumación de cuerpos pudriéndose causó gran preocupación pública.[7]​ Una Comisión Real establecida en 1842 para investigar el problema concluyó que los terrenos para entierros de Londres habían llegado a estar tan superpoblados que era imposible excavar una nueva tumba sin toparse con otra ya existente.[8]​.

En 1848-49 un epidemia de cólera mató a 14,601 personas en Londres y abrumo el sistema fúnebre por completo.[9]​ Los cuerpos eran dejados en pilas por montones esperando entierro y aun tumbas recientes eran exhumadas para hacer sitio a los nuevos entierros.[10]​[11]​.

Proposed solutions

In the wake of public concerns following the cholera epidemics and the discoveries of the Royal Commission, the Act to fix the laws respecting the Burials of the Dead in the Metropolis (Funeral Act) was passed in 1851. Under the Funeral Act, new burials were prohibited in what were formerly built-up areas of London.[12] Seven large cemeteries had recently opened within a short distance of London or were in the process. to open, and they temporarily became the main burial sites in London.[13]​ The government sought means to prevent the steadily increasing death toll in London from overwhelming the new cemeteries in the same way that traditional cemeteries had become overcrowded.[14]​Edwin Chadwick proposed the closure of all existing cemeteries in the vicinity of London apart from Kensal Green Private Cemetery in the north-west of the city, which was to be nationalized and enlarged. to provide a single funeral site for West London. A large tract of land on the Thames around 14.5 kilometers south-east of London at Abbey Wood was intended to become a single burial site for East London. The treasury was skeptical that Chadwick's scheme could ever be financially viable, and it was not very popular. Although the Metropolitan Burial Act of 1850 authorized the scheme, It was abandoned in 1852.[15]​.

An alternative proposal was made by Sir Richard Broun and Richard Sprye, who planned to use the emerging technology of motorized transport to resolve the crisis. The scheme was to purchase a single very large tract of land around 37 kilometers from London at Brookwood near Woking, Surrey, to be called Brookwood Cemetery or the London Necropolis. At this distance, the land would be far enough away from the maximum growth of the city. projected.[18]​ The London and South Western Railway (LSWR) – which had connected London to Woking in 1838 – could enable the transport of bodies and mourners from London to the site easily and cheaply.[15]​ Broun envisaged dedicated coffin trains, each carrying 50-60 bodies, traveling from London to the new Necropolis early in the morning or late at night, and the coffins being stored at the cemetery site until the time of the funeral.[19] Mourners could then be taken to the appropriate part of the cemetery by a passenger train during the day.[20]

Broun calculated that a 1,500-acre (6.1 km²) site could accommodate a total of 5,830,500 individual graves in a single layer.[15] If the practice of burying a single family in each grave were abandoned and the traditional practice for poor funerals of 10 burials per grave were adopted, the site would be able to accommodate 28,500,000 bodies.[15]​ Assuming 50,000 deaths per year and assuming that families would often choose to share a grave, Broun calculated that even with the ban on mass graves it would take more than 350 years to fill a single layer of the cemetery.[21] Although the Brookwood site was a great distance from London, Broun and Sprye argued that the speed of the railway would make it easier and cheaper to reach than the seven existing cemeteries, all of which required a slow and expensive cart journey. funeral to carry the body and mourners from London to the funeral site.[21]​.

LSWR shareholders were concerned about the impact the cemetery scheme would have on the railway's normal operations. At a shareholders' meeting in August 1852 concerns were raised about the impact of the funeral trains on normal traffic and the discretion with which negotiations had been carried out between the LSWR and the promoters.[17] The LSWR management swore that no concessions would be made to the cemetery operators, apart from promising the use of one train each day.[17] Charles Blomfield, the Bishop of London was generally hostile towards the schemes. railway, arguing that the noise and speed of the railway were incompatible with the solemnity of Christian funeral services. Blomfield also considered it inappropriate for families of people from different social backgrounds to have to share a train, and felt that it degraded the dignity of the deceased bodies of respectable members of the community to be carried on a train that also carried bodies of those who had led immoral lives.[22][23][note 2]​.

On 30 June 1852 the promoters of the Brookwood scheme obtained consent from Parliament to proceed, and the London National Necropolis and Mausoleum Company (LNC) was formed.[24] The former common land at Woking near Brookwood, owned by Earl of Onslow, was chosen as the site for the new cemetery.[25] To prevent the LSWR from exploiting its monopoly on access to the cemetery, the Private Act of Parliament Authorizing the scheme limited the LSWR to taking bodies and mourners to the cemetery in perpetuity and set a maximum fare to be imposed on funeral traffic, but did not specify in detail how funeral trains should operate.[26]

Broun's scheme had envisaged that the cemetery would run on both sides of the LSWR's main line and would be divided by religion, with separate stops on the main line, each incorporating a chapel, to serve each section of the religion.[27] The company's new consulting engineer, William Cubitt, rejected this idea and recommended a single site south of the railway line, served with a private branch of the line through the cemetery.[28] The company also considered the plan of Broun views dedicated coffin trains as unrealistic, arguing that relatives would not want the coffins to be shipped separately from the family of the deceased.[29]​.

Internal disputes with the LNC led to Broun and Sprye losing control of the scheme,[26]​ and subsequent delays and allegations of mismanagement caused further changes to the management scheme.[24]​[25]​ In September 1853 under a new trust directive work began on the scheme.[25]​ A site for the London rail terminus was identified and leased,[30]​ and 2,200 acres (8.9 km²) of land extending from Woking to Brookwood was purchased from Lord Onslow.[27]​[30]​ The 400 acres (1.6 km²) further west, at the end of Brookwood, were designated for the initial cemetery site,[27]​ and a branch railway line was built on this section of the main line.[25][note 3]​ On 7 November 1854 the new cemetery opened and the The Anglican section to the south was consecrated by Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester.[31]​[note 4]​ At the time it was the largest cemetery in the world.[33]​ On 13 November the first scheduled train left the new London Necropolis Station to the cemetery, and the first burial (the burial of the stillborn twins of a Mr and Mrs Hore of Ewer Street, Borough) took place.[34]​[note 5]​.

William Cubitt decided that the land of the initial cemetery site was more suitable placed on a branch of the railroad to the west of the cemetery. Work began on ground and rails for the new branch in early 1854. The single-track branch was completed in time for the opening two months later, at a total construction cost of £1,419 17s 6d (about £115,000 in 2016 purchasing power terms). The union with the LSWR, known as the Necropolis union, had viewed west, meaning that trains to and from London were forced to reverse entering and exiting the branch.[28] No shunting queue was provided at the Necropolis junction, a single junction allowed Necropolis branch trains to reverse towards the northern boundary of the LSWR track.[28]

The new branch ran east of the Union Necropolis on a slope down the hill. After passing through the white railings marking the cemetery boundary, it curved south to the north to the non-conformist section of the cemetery, the northern site of the station. The track straightened and ran southeast on a level crossing across the cemetery boundary, the street dividing the northern and southern halves of the initial cemetery site. Anglican of the cemetery, ending at the South station near the Bagshot road towards Guildford (now the A322) which marked the eastern boundary of the site. 91.4 meters just south of the cemetery boundary, built in 1904-05 to serve as the masonry workshops of the new LNC, the layout of the branch remained unchanged during its operations.[37]​[39]​ In 1914 a water tower made of bricks was added near the masonry workshop, to allow the LNC's locomotives to refill their tanks before returning to London thus avoiding the need to interrupt your journey and refill at Woking.[40]​.

The poor quality gravel soil, which had been the main reason for the low cost of the site and its selection as a cemetery site, was poorly suited for the railway bed. The LNC's rails, and particularly the sleepers, deteriorated rapidly and needed to be constantly replaced.[41]​.

In the early years of the cemetery's operation, locomotives hauling funeral trains from Waterloo did not travel under the branch to the cemetery, as it would leave the engine on the wrong side of the train for the return journey.[42] Instead, the train would stop immediately after passing the Junction Necropolis, and the cars would be uncoupled from the engine. A team of black horses would then drag the wagons under the sloping branch to the two cemetery stations. While the train was on the branch line the engine would be repositioned so that it was in front of the train once the horses pulled it off the branch onto the main line.[42]​.

In 1864 the Brookwood Railway Station (necropolis) was opened on the LSWR,[28]​ immediately east of Necropolis Union.[43]​ In conjunction with the construction of the station a shunting queue was added at Necropolis Union, allowing locomotives to be repositioned from the front to the rear of the train. From then on, arriving at the Necropolis junction from London the engine would not be repositioned, but would push the train towards the cemetery from the rear, under the close supervision of LNC staff. This left the engine positioned to pull the train out of the graveyard, after which it would use the shunting tail to move to the other side of the train and pull it back to London. Between 1898 and 1904 the LSWR line through Brookwood was increased from two to four tracks; A thin strip of the northern part of the cemetery was ceded to the LSWR to allow for widening of the line.[28] Brookwood station was rebuilt, and a new junction with the western part of the station allowed trains to pass between the cemetery branch and all four LSWR lines.[37]

La Compañía de la Necrópolis de Londres ofrecía tres clases de funerales, lo cual también determinaba el tipo de boleto de ferrocarril vendido a los dolientes y a los fallecidos. Un funeral de primera clase permitía a la persona comprando el funeral seleccionar el sitio de la tumba de su interés en cualquier lugar del cementerio;[note 6]​ en el momento de su apertura los precios empezaron en £2 y 10 chelines ( cerca de £212 en términos del 2016) por un plano básico de 2.7 × 1.2 metros sin ninguna especificación especial para el ataúd.[45]​ Era esperado por la LNC que aquellos usando tumbas de primera clase levantarían un memorial permanente de alguna clase en el curso del funeral. Funerales de Segunda clase costaban £1 (cerca de £85 en términos del 2016) y permitía algún control sobre la ubicación del entierro.[29]​ El derecho a levantar un memorial permanente costaba 10 chelines adicionales (cerca de £42 en términos del 2016); si un memorial permanente no se levantaba la LNC se reservaba el derecho a re-usar la tumba en el futuro.[45]​ Funerales de Tercera clase estaban reservados para funerales pobres; aquellos enterrados bajo gastos de parroquias en la sección del cementerio designada para esa parroquia. A pesar de que la LNC tenía prohibido usar tumbas en masa (otra que no fuera el entierro de parientes más cercanos en la misma tumba) y así hasta el funeral de clase más baja proveía una tumba separada para los fallecidos, los funerales de Tercera clase no tenían el derecho de levantar un memorial permanente en el sitio.[29]​ (las familias de aquellos enterrados podían pagar después para mejorar una tumba de tercera clase a una de mayor clase si querían levantar un memorial más tarde, pero esta práctica era poco común.)[46]​.

En el momento que el servicio fue inaugurado, los trenes de la LNC estaban divididos por case y religión, con secciones separadas de Anglicanos e inconformistas con compartimientos separados de Primera, Segunda y Tercera clase en cada uno.[47]​ Esta separación aplicaba pata tanto pasajeros vivos como muertos. Esto era para prevenir la mezcla de personas con diferentes trasfondos sociales y angustiando posiblemente a los dolientes así como para prevenir que cuerpos de personas de diferentes clases sociales fueran llevados en el mismo compartimiento, no tanto para proveer diferentes niveles de instalaciones para diferentes tipos de dolientes; los compartimientos intencionados para todas las clases y religiones eran muy similares en el diseño y la diferencia principal era diferente ornamentación en las puertas de los compartimientos.[19]​ A las 11:35 AM (11:20 en domingos) el tren saldría de Londres a Broowkood, llegando a la Unión Necrópolis a las 12:25 p. m. (12:20 p. m. en domingos).[48]​[note 7]​.

los trenes de la LNC eran capaces de transportar grandes cantidades de dolientes cuando se requería; el empresario fúnebre Norwroji Saklatwala el 25 de julio de 1938 vio a 155 dolientes viajando en primera clase en un tren de la LNC.[49]​ Para funerales extremadamente grandes tales como los de figuras públicas, el LSWR proveería trenes adicionales desde Waterloo hasta la estación Brookwood en la línea principal para satisfacer la demanda.[50]​ Charles Bradlaugh, miembro del Parlamento para Northampton, fue un abogado vocal de Indus auto-gobernados y una figura popular entre la comunidad India en Londres, muchos de los cuales atendieron a su funeral el 3 de febrero de 1891.[51]​ Más de 5000 dolientes fueron transportados en tres trenes largos especiales del LSWR, uno de los cuales tenía 17 vagones de largo.[50]​ Los dolientes incluyendo el joven de 21 años Mohandas Gandhi, quien recolecto presenciando un ruidoso argumente entre "un campeón ateo" y un hombre del Clero en la estación Norte mientras esperaba el regreso del tren.[51]​.

Los trenes de regreso a Londres generalmente salían de la estación Sur a las 2:115 PM y de la Unión Necrópolis a las 2:30 p. m.; el viaje de regreso inicialmente tomaba cerca de una hora debido a la necesidad de detenerse a rellenar el motor con agua, pero después de la construcción de la torre de agua en el cementerio este tiempo bajo a 40 minutos.[52]​ Un acuerdo en 1854 entre la LNC y el LSWR dio consentimiento a la LNC para operar dos o tres trenes fúnebres cada día si la demanda lo garantizaba, pero los niveles de tráfico nunca crecieron tanto para activar esta cláusula.[53]​.

El tren solo funcionaba si había pasajeros o ataúdes esperando en la terminal de Londres para usarlo, y tanto el viaje de Londres a Brookwood y el regreso posterior serían cancelados si nadie estaba programado para dejar Londres esa mañana.[47]​ No funcionaría si solo había un solo ataúd de Tercera o Segunda clase que llevar, y en estos casos el grupo del ataúd y funeral debería esperar hasta el siguiente servicio.[54]​ Generalmente los trenes iban directo de Londres al cementerio, además de paradas ocasionales rellenar el tanque de agua. Entre 1890 y 1910 los trenes también paraban algunas veces en Vauxhall y la Unión Clapham para el beneficio de dolientes desde el Sur Oeste de Londres quienes no querían viajar vía Waterloo, pero estas paradas intermediarias fueron suspendidas y nunca reinstaladas.[53]​ Después del 1º de octubre de 1900 los trenes de Domingos fueron suspendidos, y desde 1902 se terminaron los servicios diarios de trenes y los trenes solo funcionaban cuando se requerían.[55]​.

Rates

The Act of Parliament stated that the LNC had specific price ceilings for railway ticket prices and traffic never grew to a sufficient level at which it would have been justified for the LNC or the LSWR to take costly and time-consuming action to make a change to the legislation. As a consequence, despite the effects of inflation, competition and variable costs the fares of the London Necropolis Railway never changed during the first 85 of the 87 years of operation.[56] Living passengers were charged 6 shillings in first class, 3 shillings and 6 pence in second class and 2 shillings in third class (in 1854 it was worth about £25, £15 and £8 respectively in terms of consumption in the 2016) for a round ticket, while deceased passengers were charged £1 in first class, 5s in second class and 2s and 6d in third class (worth in 1854 approximately £85, £21 and £11 respectively in terms of consumption in 2016) for a single ticket.[57] As the railway was intended only to be used by Londoners visiting the cemetery or catering for funerals, the only tickets sold to living passengers were round tickets from London.[58]​ In 1918 the LSWR (which supplied the passenger carriages for the LNC) abandoned second class services and the LNC consequently discontinued the sale of second class fares to living passengers, but continued to separate coffins into first, second and third class depending on the type of funeral booked.[59]​.

Intentionally low at the time of the railway's opening and the cemetery, in later years the fixed fares offered a substantial saving over main line tickets to Brookwood (in 1902 the 4s third class fare on the LSWR to Brookwood was double the equivalent cost of the LNC). Additional LNC traffic was generated by golfers passing by as mourners traveling to the golf course which had been built on those parts purchased by the LNC in 1852 that had not been incorporated into the cemetery.[23][60] The fixed fares prompted complaints from other funeral firms in London after the opening of Woking Crematorium in 1885, as rival contenders were not given access to the LNC's cheap trains. LNC and had to pay the LSWR freight rate (24 shillings in 1885) to send the coffins to Brookwood or Woking stations for transfer to the crematorium.[61][note 8]​.

In its last two years of operation, wartime increases in costs left the fixed rate structure unsustainable and between July 1939 and January 1941 there were five slight adjustments to rates. Fares for living passengers increased to 7s 5d in first class and 2s 6d in third class, with equivalent changes for coffin fares. These fares remained much cheaper than the equivalent fares from Waterloo to Brookwood for both living and dead passengers on the Southern Railway (SR), which absorbed the LSWR line in the restructuring of Britain's railways in 1923.[64] The fare structure of January 1941 remained in use after the suspension of London Necropolis Railway services in April 1941, for Occasional funerals conducted by the LNC using the SR platforms at Waterloo station, but the SR only allowed mourners attending funerals to use the cheap fares and not those visiting the cemetery.[65]

Relocation of cemeteries in London

As well as taking control of new burials from the now closed London cemeteries, the LNC also envisaged the physical relocation of existing burial grounds to its Necropolis, to provide a final solution to the problems caused by urban burial areas.[36] The massive civil engineering projects in London in the mid-19th century - the railways, the drainage system and from the 1860s the precursors to the London Underground - often necessitated the demolition of existing church graveyards.[67]​ The first major relocation took place in 1862, when the construction of Charing Cross railway station and its lines necessitated the demolition of the Cure College cemetery in Southwark.[67]​ About 3,800 m³ of earth was displaced, uncovering at least 7,950 bodies.[67]​ These were packed into 220 large containers, each with 26 adults plus children, and were sent to the London Necropolis Railway towards Broowkood for re-interment, along with at least some of the cemetery's existing crypts, at a cost of around 3 shillings per body. At least 21 London cemeteries were relocated to Brookwood by railway, along with numerous others relocated by road after the railway closed.

Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial

In 1929 a section of LNC land at Brookwood was set aside as the Brookwood American Memorial and Cemetery, the only cemetery in Britain for American military casualties from the First World War. As most American casualties had occurred in continental Europe and were buried there the number of graves at Broowkood was small, with a total of 468 servicemen buried in the cemetery. With the entry of the United States into the Second World War the American cemetery was enlarged, with burials of American servicemen beginning in April 1942. With a large number of American personnel based in the West of England, a rail dedicated to the service of transporting bodies operated from Devonport to Brookwood. By August 1944 more than 3,600 bodies had been buried in the American Military Cemetery. At this time burials were discontinued and American casualties were thereafter buried at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial.[69]

Under the authority of Thomas B. Larkin, Quartermaster General of the United States Army, the U.S. military buried at Brookwood during the Second World War were exhumed in January-May 1948.[71] Those whose next of kin requested it were sent to the United States for reburial,[71] and the remaining bodies were transferred to the new cemetery outside Cambridge.[69]​ (the Brookwood American Cemetery had also been the site of those servicemen executed while serving the United Kingdom, of which their Their bodies had been brought to Brookwood by train from the American execution facility at Shepton Mallet. They were not transferred to Cambridge in 1948, but were instead reinterred in unmarked graves at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Plot E, a dedicated site for American servicemen executed during World War II.)[69]​[note 9]​ Rail service had been suspended in 1941, and North Station (renamed Bar Norte after the train services ended[32]) was used as a temporary mortuary to store bodies while they waited to be shipped to the U.S. or to Cambridge.[71] Since the branch line to the cemetery was no longer in use, temporary platforms were built on the branch serving the National Rifle Association as a firing range at Bisley, on the opposite side of the LSWR line from the cemetery.[69]​ After the removal of the U.S. military graves The site where they had been buried was divided into two cemeteries for the French Free Forces and for the Italian prisoners of war.[69]

Locomotives

Under the terms of the agreement and Act of Parliament in 1852 establishing the London Necropolis Company, the LSWR (after 1923 SR) provided the locomotives and staff for the operations of the London Necropolis Railway. 1864, locomotives rarely entered the cemetery branch line and trains were generally hauled on the branch by horses. Towards the end of railway operations in the 1930s the route was mostly operated by LSWR class M7 locomotives, usually No.255.

Passenger carriages

The passenger carriages used on the London Necropolis Railway were not owned by the LNC, but were on loan from the LSWR. One set of carriages were loaned out permanently, rather than being loaned when needed, as the LSWR was concerned that passengers would be discouraged from using regular LSWR services if they knew that its carriages might have recently carried dead bodies.[73]

The original set of wagons, used between 1854 and 1899, were four-wheeled wagons designed by Joseph Hamilton Beattie. Little was recorded about the number and specifications of the cars. The same set of cars remained in use for more than 40 years, prompting increasingly loud complaints from the LNC about their deteriorating quality.[74]​.

As part of the 1896 agreement in which the LSWR would re-equip the LNC junction with the repositioning of the LNC's London terminal, the LNC demanded that the new passenger carriages supplied by the LSWR be "of quality and character not inferior to the ordinary main line of the LSWR".[74] These new carriages were supplied in the late 19th century, probably in December 1899.[74] All They were six-wheeled and consisted of two passenger brake cars of 9.2 meters each containing the third class compartments, a baggage compartment and the guard's compartment; a 10.4 meter passenger carriage divided into three first class compartments and two second class compartments; and a 9.2 meter passenger carriage divided into five third class compartments (also used as all second class).[74] Despite not having been recorded, it is likely that the other carriages were also on permanent loan to the LNC to be used as needed.[75]

This set of cars only remained in use for a short period and in 1907 it was replaced by a new set of cars of which little is known.[75] In 1917 this set was replaced by two 15.5 meter passenger brake cars each containing two first class and four third class compartments, a 15.2 meter car with three first class and three third class compartments, and a 14 meter car with six third class compartments.[76]​.

This set operated for most of the inter-war period, being removed in April 1938. It was replaced by a very similar set of carriages at this time, which was removed in September 1939 after the outbreak of hostilities to troop trains. The carriages were replaced by the former Royal Train, built in 1900-04 of the now defunct South Eastern and Chatham Railway.[78] These Ornately decorated cars were those destroyed in the bombing of the terminal in London in 1941.[78]​.

Funeral Cars

Unlike the loaned locomotives and passenger cars, the LNC owned its own funeral cars outright.[19]​ Despite this, they always painted in a color scheme that was the current scheme used by those LSWR cars (SR after 1923), to match the passenger cars and locomotives on loan to the LNC.[79]​.

As with carriages for living passengers, the funeral carriages were designed to prevent the mixing of bodies of different backgrounds.[19] Each of the original carriages was split into twelve sections in two rows of six, each capable of carrying one coffin;[80] Later carriages were of little different design and probably carried 14 coffins.[79] The carriages were suitable with internal partitions to divide coffins of first, second and third class.[80] The LNC intended to use half the funeral carriages for Anglicans and the other half for Nonconformist coffins, to prevent Anglicans from sharing carriages with Nonconformists, but in practice this arrangement was rarely used.[80] Unlike traditional Victorian funerals, in which the hearse would invariably lead the funeral procession, photographic evidence shows that the LNC would sometimes put the hearse car at the back of the train.[80]​ (because the trains reversed from Necropolis Union towards the cemetery, regardless of the arrangement used the hearse cars would inevitably be at the back of the train for some part of the trip.).

The LNC ordered six funeral cars in 1854, two of which were operational at the time the Necropolis Railway opened.[80] Their origins were not written down, although they bought cheaply suggesting that they were conversions of existing cars rather than build-to-order.[81] Many of the LNC's records from this period have been lost and it is not certain how many funeral cars were delivered and how they were delivered. used; Records suggest that between three and ten funeral cars were purchased or leased by the LNC in the early years of operation.[82]

As part of the agreement during the relocation of the London terminus, two new hearse carriages were delivered to the LNC by the LSWR in 1899. in use until the closure of the Necropolis Railway.[73] One of the carriages was destroyed in the bombing of the London terminus in 1941; the other was transferred to the SR and remained in use until at least 1950. The former Royal Train brought into passenger service on the London Necropolis Railway in 1939 had a large amount of luggage space and it is likely that when funeral traffic was light the funeral carriages were not used and the coffins were carried in the luggage space.

Bajo en consejo de William Cubitt las dos estaciones en el cementerio fueron construidas como estructuras temporales, con la expectativa de que necesitarían se reconstruidas una vez que el ferrocarril fuera operacional y que los problemas operando el ferrocarril de esta naturaleza única se resolvieran.[32]​ Ambas fueron diseñadas por Sydney Smirke, quien presentó sus diseños a la LNC en marzo de 1854.[32]​.

Cada estación fue construida como edificios de un piso en un explanada cuadrada. El lado adyacente a la línea del ferrocarril se dejó abierta, y aulas se extendían del edificio a lo largo de la plataforma en cada lado. Además de las caras de las plataformas de ladrillo, chimeneas y fundaciones las estaciones fueron construidas enteramente de madera.[32]​ Cada estación tenía una recepción de primera clase y una ordinaria para dolientes, un cuarto de descanso de primera clase y uno ordinario, y un set de apartamentos para el personal de la LNC.[32]​ Los cuartos de descanso en ambas estaciones tenían licencia para vender alcohol.[83]​[note 10]​ El personal de los trenes generalmente esperaría en estos cuartos hasta que los trenes estuvieran listos para regresar a Londres y en al menos una ocasión (el 12 de enero de 1867) el conductor se puso tan borracho que el fogonero tuvo que manejar el tren de regreso a Londres.[84]​ Este incidente incitó a una queja del LSWR y desde ese entonces la LNC proveyó al personal con comida gratis con tal de que no bebieran más de una pinta de cerveza.[84]​.

A mediados de 1855 se excavaron bodegas por debajo de las estaciones y la recepción de ataúdes en cada estación fueron convertidas en "cuartos de espera de pobres".[85]​ Ninguna estación estaba equipada con gas o electricidad; durante su existencia los edificios eran alumbrados con lámparas de aceite y gamas de carbón eran usadas para calentar y cocinar.[86]​[note 11]​Las fachadas de las plataformas estaban incorporadas con un margen adicional, con el largo de un ladrillo de hondo y la anchura de la explanada.[32]​ Este margen facilitaba la descarga de ataúdes desde los niveles más bajos de los vagones fúnebres.[87]​[88]​.

En el arribo a las estaciones los ataúdes usualmente se descargarían en un féretro hecho a mano y jalado por el personal de LNC a la capilla apropiada.[87]​ Mientras esto ocurría los dolientes eran escoltados a los cuartos de espera de la estación.[52]​ En el arribo a las capillas los funerales de primera y segunda clase generalmente tendrían un servicio breve (funerales de tercera clase tenían un solo servicio en la capilla apropiada para todos aquellos siendo enterrados).[87]​ Para aquellos entierros donde el servicio funeral ya se había llevado a cabo en una parroquia o iglesia o en la terminal de LNC en Londres los ataúdes serían llevados directo del tren a la tumba.[89]​.

North Station

North Station, serving Catholics, Parsis, Jews and Nonconformist Christians as well as some groups with dedicated plots in the North Cemetery such as actors and Odd fellows, was the first station of the branch.[87]​[90]​ At the opening of the cemetery North Station incorporated the quarters of James Bailey, superintendent at the Nonconformist cemetery.[85]​ In 1861 Bailey became the sole superintendent and moved to a cottage outside the grounds. and his apartment was given to Richard Lee, a cemetery caretaker. Census records show that Lee lived at North Station, until 1865 with his mother Ann and then with his wife Charlotte, until at least 1871.[85] A number of cemetery staff lived in the station apartment until the 1950s. By this time the railway itself had closed but the station's refreshment kiosk remained open.[91] Stairs led the way from the 64 meter platform to the chapel, at the top of the hill behind the station.[71]

Between 1942 and 1944 a large number of Allied service personnel were buried in the military section of Brookwood Cemetery. Under the authority of Thomas B. Larkin, Quartermaster General of the United States Army, 3,600 bodies of American military personnel were exhumed in January-May 1948 and sent to the United States for reburial. Railroad service had been suspended in 1941 and North Station (renamed North Bar after rail services ended[32]) was used as a mortuary to store these bodies while they waited to be shipped to the United States.[71]

On the retirement of Mr and Mrs Dendy in 1956, who operated the refreshment kiosk in the station building from 1948 to 1956 and lived in the station apartment, the building was abandoned.[71] It was demolished in the 1960s due to dry rot.[71]

South Station

The design of the South Station was very similar to that of the North Station. Unlike the platform stairs at North Station, the South Station platform had a ramp leading to the Anglican chapel on the northern part of the platform.[71] A shed adjacent to the station stored coffins, used to transport coffins around the large South cemetery.[71] At the time the branch line opened the South Station platform was only 39 meters long, much shorter than the station's 64 meter platform. North.[86]​ At some point the platform was greatly extended to the South of the station building to a total length of 78 meters, allowing discreet unloading of equipment without disturbing station users.[86]​.

At the time the apartment at the station opened it housed George Buppel, the superintendent of the Anglican cemetery. As with North Station, once James Bailey became sole superintendent in 1861 the use of the apartment was allowed to the cemetery caretaker and it housed a succession of cemetery staff over the years. After the suspension of railway services in 1941 the building was renamed the South Bar,[32] and remained in use as a refreshment kiosk.[86] The last operators of the kiosk, Mr and Mrs Ladd, retired in the late 1960s and from then onwards the station building was used as a cemetery warehouse.[86] Around half of the building was destroyed by fire in September 1972.[86]​ The building was popular with railway and architectural enthusiasts as a distinctive piece of Victorian railway architecture, but despite a major campaign to preserve the surviving sections of the station building (as well as the platform) they were demolished shortly afterwards.[83][86] By the time of its demolition the "temporary" structure was 118 years old.[83]​.

Brookwood Station

At the time of the cemetery opening, the nearest railway station other than those on the cemetery branch was Woking station 4 miles away. As only one train a day ran from London to the cemetery stations and even that train only ran when funerals were scheduled, access to the cemetery was difficult for mourners and LNC staff.[83] Although in the negotiations for the creation of the cemetery the LSWR had told the LNC that they planned to build a station for the main line near the cemetery, they had not done so.[92]

In 1863, with the cemetery fully operational and a new asylum planned near Brookwood likely increasing traffic, the LSWR agreed to build a station on the main line at Brookwood, along with improvements to the Union Necropolis and freight concourse, provided the LNC provided sufficient land and built the station road and caretaker's house for the new station.[92] The new station, called Brookwood (Necropolis) railway station (the suffix was gradually dropped), opened on June 1, 1864.[92][93] A substantial nearby town grew up around the north side (non-cemetery portion) of the new station, and the station building (on the north side of the tracks) was enlarged in 1890.[92] In conjunction with this work, a branch line was added in 1890 from a platform bay to the National Rifle Association firing range in Bisley, running west to north of the LSWR main line before curving north to Bisley.[94]​[95]​.

In 1903, when the LSWR tracks quadrupled, a major reconstruction of the station was needed. The low platform (west boundary) was demolished, and a new 175 meter platform was built, along with a second station building overlooking the cemetery, from where a foot path led across the cemetery branch tracks to the cemetery.[92]​.

Un sitio para la terminal de Londres cerca de Waterloo fue sugerido por Sir Richard Broun. Su proximidad con el Támesis significaba que los cuerpos podrían ser transportados de manera barata a la terminal por el agua desde la mayoría de Londres, y el acceso al área era fácil desde ambas partes Norte y Sur del Río por la calle. Los arcos del enorme viaducto de ladrillos cargando el LSWR hacia el Puente de la Estación Waterloo (ahora la estación de Waterloo en Londres) fueron fácilmente convertidos en mortuorios. Broun también sentía que el viaje fuera de Londres desde el puente de Waterloo sería menos angustioso para los dolientes; mientras que la mayoría de las rutas de riel fuera de Londres iban a través de túneles y cortes hondos a través de áreas con poblaciones densas, en este momento el desarrollo urbano de lo que ahora es el Sur de Londres no había tomado lugar y la ruta de LSWR iba casi por completo a través de paisajes y campos.[96]​ La LNC también contemplaba tomar control sobre la antigua terminal de el LSWR en la estación de ferrocarril Nine Elms (que después de la apertura de 1848 de la conveniente Estación del Puente de Waterloo fue usada solo para tráfico de bienes, trenes alquilados para llevar migrantes a Norteamérica,[97]​ y los trenes privados de la familia real) como ya sea la terminal principal o secundaria.[98]​[99]​ A pesar de las objeciones de residentes locales preocupados por los efectos de grandes cantidades de cuerpos potencialmente siendo almacenados en grandes áreas residenciales,[30]​ en marzo de 1854 la LNC aceptó una sola terminal en Waterloo y compró un terreno entre la Calle del Puente Westminster y la Calle York (ahora Calle Leake) para el sitio.[100]​ El arquitecto William Tite y el Ingeniero William Cubbit realizaron un diseño para la estación, el cual fue aprobado en junio de 1854.[96]​.

First London terminal (1854–1902)

Tite and Cubbit's design was based around a three-story main building,[101] separated from the main LSWR viaduct by a private access under the LNC twin lines, intended to allow mourners to arrive and leave discreetly and avoid the need for hearses stopping on public roads.[102] The building housed two mortuaries, the LNC boardroom and funeral workshops, and a series of separate waiting rooms for those attending first, second and third class funerals.[103]​ A steam elevator raised coffins from the lower floors to the level of the upper platform.[104][note 12]​ Although the original London terminal did not have its own chapel, on some occasions mourners could not or would not make the journey to a ceremony at Brookwood but for personal and religious reasons could not carry out the funeral service in a church in London. On these occasions one of the waiting rooms could be used as an improvised chapel for the funeral.[105]​.

As the station site was adjacent to the LSWR viaduct arches, it blocked any increase in the number of lines serving Waterloo station (renamed Waterloo Bridge Station in 1886). Urban growth in the area of ​​what is now South London, through which trains from Waterloo ran, led to congestion at the station and in 1896 the LSWR formally submitted to the LNC a proposal to provide the LNC with a new station in exchange for the existing terminal site. The LNC agreed to the proposals, in exchange for ceding control of the design of the new station to the LNC and renting the new station to the LNC for a symbolic rent in perpetuity, providing new rolling stock, removing any limit on the number of passengers using the Necropolis service, and providing free transportation of rolling stock and equipment to be used in the cemetery.[106] Although the LSWR were not at all happy with what they had considered to be the demands. excessive,[107]​ In May 1899 the companies signed an agreement in which the LSWR gave in to all the LNC's demands. In addition the LSWR paid £12,000 in compensation (about £1.22 million in 2016 terms) for the inconvenience of relocating the LNC station and its offices,[108] and agreed that mourners returning from the cemetery could travel on any LSWR train to Waterloo, Vauxhall or Clapham Union.[58]

Second London Terminal (1902–1941)

A site for the replacement terminal was purchased by the LSWR in 1899, to the south of the existing site and on the track side of Westminster Bridge.[109] It was completed on 8 February 1902,[109] and the LSWR viaduct was widened to serve a greatly expanded Waterloo station, destroying any trace of the original LNC terminal.[110]

The new building was designed to be attractive and modern in contrast to the traditional gloomy decoration associated with a funeral home.[111] A narrow four-story building on Westminster Bridge Road housed the LNC's offices. Behind him was the main terminal; this had a third-class communal waiting room,[112] mortuaries and warehouses,[111] LNC workshops,[113] and a sumptuous oak-paneled Ardent Chapel, intended for mourners unable to make the journey to Brookwood to pay respects to their deceased.[113] This building led to two platforms, lined with waiting rooms and a ticket office.[113]

Destruction

During the Second World War Waterloo station near the Thames bridges was a significant target for bombing and there were several near misses on the station during the aerial bombardment of London in 1940-41. Although there were several interruptions to the Necropolis railway service due to enemy action on parts of the line, Necropolis station was undamaged during the early war campaign. bombings.[112]​ During the night of 16-17 April 1941, in one of the last major air raids on London,[note 13]​ bombs fell repeatedly in the Waterloo area. The rolling stock docked on the Necropolis siding was set on fire, and the branch arch connecting the main line to the Necropolis terminal was damaged, but the terminal building itself remained intact.[114]

At 10:30 p.m. m. Multiple incendiary devices and high-impact bombs struck the center section of the terminal building. While the office building and platforms survived, the workshops, sidewalk, and Ardente Chapel were destroyed, along with the third-class waiting room.[114]​[note 14]​[115]​ The railroad's Southern division engineer inspected the damage at 2:00 p.m. m. on April 17 and its report simply said "the Necropolis buildings were demolished."[115]​ On May 11, 1941 the station was officially declared closed.[114][note 15]​.

The last group recorded for a funeral carried on the London Necropolis Railway was that of Chealse pensioner Edward Irish (1868-1941), buried on 11 April 1941.[54]​[note 16]​ The Southern Railway offered the LNC temporary use of platform 11 or 12 at Waterloo station to allow the service to continue,[54]​ but refused to let The LNC continued to sell cheap tickets to visitors traveling to and from the cemetery stations other than those involved in a funeral that same day, meaning that those visiting the cemetery other than relatives of the funeral had very little reason to choose the LNC's irregular and infrequent trains over the fast and frequent SR service to Brookwood. 11:57 AM to Brookwood (the SR service closest to the LNC's traditional departure time), but the SR administration, themselves under severe financial pressures due to wartime, refused to promise any other commitment.[118]​.

In September 1945, after the end of hostilities, the directors of the LNC met to consider whether to rebuild the terminus and reopen the London Necropolis Railway. Although the main line from Waterloo to Brookwood had remained in use throughout the war and was in good condition, the branch line from Brookwood to the cemetery had been largely unused since the destruction of the terminus in London. With the cemetery soil causing deterioration to the branch even though it had been in use and regularly maintained, the branch line was in deplorable condition.

Although the original promoters of the scheme had envisaged Brookwood Cemetery becoming the main or only cemetery, the scheme had never been as popular as they had hoped.[53] In the original proposal, Richar Broun had calculated that in its first century of operation the cemetery would have seen around five million burials at a rate of 50,000 a year, of which the vast majority would have used the railway.[15] In reality at the time of the last train running on 11 April By 1941, almost 87 years after opening, only 203,041 people had been buried in the cemetery.[54] Before the outbreak of hostilities, the increased use of motorized track for transport had damaged the railway's usefulness for both the LNC and the Southern Railway.[110] Faced with the costs of rebuilding the cemetery branch line, building a new London terminus and replacing rolling stock damaged or destroyed by air raid, the Directors concluded that "past experiences and present changing conditions made the operation of the Necropolis private train obsolete."[114] In mid-1946 the LNC formally informed the SR that the Westminster Bridge track would not be reopened.[116]

The decision prompted complicated negotiations with the SR over the future of the LNC's London facilities.[114] In December 1946 the directors of both companies finally reached an agreement.[119]The railway-related portions of the terminal site (waiting rooms, caretaker's apartment and the platforms themselves) would pass directly into the ownership of the SR, while the remaining surviving portions of the site (the office block on the Westminster Bridge track, the entrance footpath and the ruined central portion of the site) would pass to the LNC to use or dispose of as they saw fit.[114] The LNC sold the site to the British Humane Association in May 1947 for £21,000 (about £741,000 in 2016 terms) and the LNC offices were transferred to the superintendent's office in Brookwood.[114][120][note 17] The SR continued to use the surviving sections of the track as occasional sidings into the 1950s, before removing all that remained of this section at the site.[115]

While most of the LNC's businesses now operated on normal tracks, an agreement on 13 May 1946 allowed the LNC to use SR services from Waterloo station to Brookwood for funerals, subject to the condition that if the service became overused the SR (British Railways after 1948) reserved the right to restrict the number of funeral groups on any train.[42] Although one of the LNC funeral cars had survived the bombing and were unlikely to be used again, and the coffins were carried in the luggage spaces of the SR cars.[42] The coffins were either sent to Brookwood ahead of the funeral party and transported by normal rail to one of the mortuaries at the unused stations at the cemetery or traveling on the same SR train as the funeral party to Brookwood and being transported from the station. Brookwood to burial site or overland chapel.[42]​.

Although the LNC proposed converting the cemetery branch into a large avenue running from Brookwood station through the cemetery, this never happened.[41]​ The rails and sleepers on the branch were removed by 1947,[41]​ and the track bed was converted to dirt road and footpaths.[121]​[note 18]​ The switch line and stub of the branch line west of Brookwood station remained operational as tracks. dead, before being dismantled on November 30, 1964.[41] After the closure of the branch, the buildings of the two cemetery stations remained open as refreshment kiosks and were renamed Bar Norte and Sur.[32]​.

Después de la nacionalización de los Ferrocarriles Británicos de 1947, el uso del ferrocarril para transportar ataúdes a Brookwood se fue en picada. Nuevos procedimientos operativos requerían que los atáudes fueran llevados en vagones separados de otras cargas; como servicios regulares a la estación Brookwood usaban unidades eléctricas múltiples los cuales no tenían vagones para bienes, ataúdes para Brookwood tuvieron que ser enviados a Woking y después llevados por tierra por la última parte del camino, o un tren especial tenía que ser alquilado. El último funeral por ferrocarril llevado a cabo por British Rail en cualquier parte fue el de Lord Mountbatten en septiembre de 1979,[123]​ y desde el 28 de marzo de 1988 British Rail formalmente cesó el envío de ataúdes por completo.[124]​ Desde Mountbatte, el único funeral por ferrocarril llevado a cabo en el Reino Unido ha sido el del exsecretario General de la National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, Jimmy Knapp, llevado desde Londres a Kilmarnock para su entierro en agosto del 2001.[125]​.

Seasons

Most of the site of the 1902 London terminus was rebuilt with new office developments in the years following the end of the Second World War, but the office building on Westminster Bridge Road, above the former entrance to the station, remains relatively unaltered on the exterior although the words "London Necropolis" engraved in the stone above the entrance have been covered.[110] Refurbishment and cleaning restored the building's facade in the 1980s. an appearance similar to that at the time of its construction[110] Apart from iron columns on Newnham Terrace which once supported the Necropolis railway tracks[110] and a surviving section of the internal entrance used as a car park,[110] the Westminster Bridge Road building is the only surviving part of the Necropolis railway in London.[111]

Brookwood station on the former LSWR line (now the South Western Main Line and the Alton Line) is little changed since its expansion and reconstruction in 1903.[121] It remains in use by travelers from the town that has grown up north of the railway line and by visitors to the cemetery south of the line.[121] A small railway memorial in the London Necropolis consisting of a small part of the track on the former line was erected in 2007 outside the South entrance (cemetery side) of the station.[121]​.

The North Station site has changed significantly. The ornate mausoleum of Sharif Al-Huseein Ben Ali (d. 1998) is directly opposite the platform remains.[126] Operators of the Shia Islamic section of the cemetery have planted Leylandii along the boundary of the cemetery section, which includes the station's North platform. Unless the trees are removed, the remains of the station will eventually become hidden remains destroyed by overgrowth.[126]​.

The land surrounding the site of South Station and the station's two Anglican chapels were redundant after the railway closed. As part of the London Necropolis Act of 1956 the LNC obtained Parliamentary consent to convert the disused original Anglican chapel into a crematorium, using the new chapel for new funeral services and the station building for storage of coffins and a rest room for those attending cremations.[127] Suffering from cash flow problems and distracted by the succession of hostile takeover auctions, the LNC management never proceeded with the scheme and the buildings fell into disuse.[127] The station was demolished after being damaged by fire in 1972, although the platform remained intact.[86]

Since 1982 the site of South Station has been owned by the St. Edward Brotherhood, and forms part of a Russian Orthodox Monastery.[126] The original Anglican chapel is used as a visitor center and living quarters for the monastery, while the larger Anglican chapel built in 1908-09 immediately to the North of the Station is now the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Edward the Martyr, and houses the relics and belongings of Edward the Martyr. martyr, King of England from 975-978 AD.[128]​ The site of the former station building is now a main building of the monastery, while the platform remains intact and now marks the boundaries of the monastery compound.[128]​.

Brookwood Cemetery and the LNC

The LNC continued to lobby the SR and its 1948 successor British Railways into the 1950s on the issue of cheap fares for visitors to the cemetery, but they were unable to reach an agreement.[124] In 1957 the Southern Region of British Railways considered allowing the LNC to sell discounted fares of 7s 6d (compared to the standard fare of 9s 4d) for day round tickets of London to Brookwood. By this time most visitors were traveling by land. The LNC felt that the relatively minor difference between fares would not be sufficient to attract visitors back to the railway, and the proposal was abandoned.[124]

With the area around Woking by this time becoming heavily populated, the LNC's lands had become highly valuable properties, and from 1955 onwards the LNC became the target of repeated hostile takeover auctions by speculative landowners.[127] In January 1959 the Property Alliance Company announced the successful takeover of the London Necropolis Company, bringing down over a century of independence.[129] The Property Alliance was a property company with little interest in the funeral business, and income from burials was insufficient to maintain the cemetery lands. Brookwood Cemetery went into decline and the cemetery began to return to nature.[129] This trend continued under a succession of subsequent owners.[130]

The Brookwood Cemetery Act of 1975 authorized the owners of the cemetery (at the time Maximilian investors) to sell excess land within the cemetery boundaries, leading to the construction of a major office development on the site of the former Superintendent's office, near the former crossing level between the North and South cemeteries.[126] The masonry works remained operational until the early 1980s, and were then converted into buildings of offices and called Stonemason Court.[128]​ In March 1985 the cemetery was purchased by Ramadan Güney, whose family still owns the cemetery until 2011. The Guney family embarked on a program to encourage new burials in the cemetery, and to slowly clear neglected sections of the cemetery.[131][132]​.

While it was never successful as planned, Brookwood Cemetery remains the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in the world. Although it was not the only railway dedicated to funerals, the London Necropolis Railway was the first, longest-lasting and by far the best known.

As well as forming a key element of Basil Copper's novel Necropolis (1980),[134] the railway and cemetery received great attention after the publication (2002) of Andrew Martin's novel, The Necropolis Railway. Both books were critically acclaimed and led to increased public interest in The London Necropolis Company and its Railway operations.[135]

On 31 July 2015, the first episode of the third series of the BBC television drama, Ripper Street, highlighted a collision between the main line locomotive and the LNC train which had been put on the wrong track by criminals.

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