Thursday, 17 October 2024

London Necropolis Railway


 

In Victorian times, people were obsessed with death and the macabre. There was also a train specifically for the dead, not really the norm, and it was officially designed as a funeral train. It was called the London Necropolis Railway, which was first opened in November 1854. 

Made to transport the deceased, acting as a funeral train service to carry mourners and then reach the destination for burial. It was started by the London Necropolis Company or LNC at the time, and be used from Waterloo Station in London to the company's cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey. It was also designed to work as a funeral service train for "centuries to come"! 

However, this nice idea endured many years of transporting the dead and the mourners until WW2. During which, the railway track was so severely damaged by air raid bombings that it was considered unworthy of any use. The remains of the track was taken up and then the train itself simply ceased to be used for funerals. It seemed that gothic piece of history shut down and is now a museum piece and a memory at Brookwood when a placard and small railway fragment display detailing of the London Necropolis Railway was created in 2007. 

Even the cemetery owned by the LNC has become overgrown.

Shadow Girl