Necropolis Railway - end of the line

For 87 years, from 1854 until 1941, the London Necropolis Railway – ran an almost daily service from Waterloo Station to Brookwood Cemetery, carrying anything up to 2,000 bodies a year, and segregating both the living and the dead according to their class and their religious persuasion. This was the world’s first funeral railway

The building at 121, Westminster Bridge Road is the site of what remains of the former London Necropolis Railway.

Victorian London’s overcrowded Churchyards

When Waterloo station opened in 1848 the Industrial Revolution was at full steam, nudging the population of London towards an unprecedented 2.5 million people. The cramped living conditions, poor sanitation and the regular outbreaks of diseases such as smallpox, cholera, typhoid and various other diseases were commonplace. By 1850, the average life expectancy for those living in the capital stood at just 43.

Between 1846 and 1849, a devastating cholera epidemic swept across London, resulting in the deaths of 14,601 Londoners, and the capital’s already struggling burial system was completely overwhelmed and unable to cope.

Burials Act

In 1851, Parliament, hoping to confront the problem head-on, passed “An Act to Amend the Laws Concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis.”

The new “Burials Act”, as it was more succinctly known, tackled the problem by forbidding outright any new burials in the built-up areas at the centre of London.

A new solution

In response to this burial space crisis, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1852 which established the London Necropolis & Mausoleum Company, a group charged with the task of creating a single, massive cemetery- a ‘City of the Dead’- where it was hoped all of London’s corpses could be interned.

A plot for the huge burial site, with the “requisite qualities of solitude and retirement” was secured 25 miles outside of London at Brookwood on Woking Common, Surrey.

The first station 1854-1902

188 Westminster Bridge Road

Nothing remains of the original LNR station which was located near Waterloo (Leake Street Arches) and demolished during the expansion of the regular railway terminus in the early 1900s.

Why Waterloo?

Waterloo was chosen due to its proximity to the Thames (sites at Battersea and Nine Elms were also considered for the same purpose); the idea being that bodies could be delivered easily to the station via river from most parts of the metropolis (as a popular alternative at the time to London’s busy, congested streets).

In addition, the proximity of three major bridges, Waterloo, Westminster and Blackfriars, also made it easily accessible for mourners who wishes to travel from north of the river by road.

After being unloaded from the boat, coffins would be placed upon a horse-drawn hearse for the short trot to the Necropolis station which, although incorporated into Waterloo, was kept distinctly separate from the rest of the terminal with discretion considered the utmost priority.

Another important benefit was the fact that the arches of the huge brick viaduct, that carried the rails into and out of Waterloo Bridge Station, would make excellent mortuaries in which to store the dead before they commenced their journey to Brookwood.

First, Second or Third Class

Once at the private station, coffins would be transferred up to platform level via a steam-powered lift and loaded onto an awaiting funeral train.

Mourners of the deceased would also board the service, taking time to grieve in special waiting rooms before embarking on the 45-minute journey to Surrey.

Like other rail services at the time, passengers- both living and dead- had a choice of three classes.

Whilst first and second class mourners travelled in comfort and had a say in the funeral’s arrangements, third-class carriages were designated for paupers whose cheap tickets and flimsy caskets were paid for by their local parish.

As well as class, the carriages for both coffins and passengers were also segregated along religious lines- with separate coaches for Anglicans and Nonconformists.

Terminus – End of the Line

When Brookwood Cemetery opened on the 7^th November 1854 it was the world’s largest cemetery. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester and the Reverend L. Humbert of St Olave’s, Southwark who travelled to the ceremony on-board one of the new state of the art services.

Several days later, on the 13^th November 1854, the Necropolis Railway was ready for its first booking- a tragic pair of baby twins who had been stillborn to a Mr and Mrs Hore of Ewer Street, Borough.

Brookwood Cemetery

At 500 acres, the cemetery was the largest in the world when it opened and is still the biggest in Britain today and the largest in western Europe.

When first conceived, it was forecast that Brookwood Cemetery would take up to 50,000 burials per year.

Brookwood Cemetery Website – Click here

Brookwood Cemetary Trail – An excellent walking guide to the area Click Here

On arrival at Brookwood Cemetery, trains reversed down the branch line to one of two stations within the cemetery – one dedicated for the burial of Anglicans, the other for Nonconformists and non-believers. The station waiting rooms and the compartments of the train were partitioned by both religion and class to prevent both mourners and cadavers from different social backgrounds from mixing. The railway also transported very significant numbers of exhumed bodies during the mass removal of a number of London graveyards to Brookwood.

Second Necropolis Station 1902-41

At the turn of the 20^th century, Waterloo station underwent a large expansion which required the Necropolis Railway terminal to relocate a short distance away to Westminster Bridge Road.

Designed by Cyril Bazett Tubbs, and specifically intended to be as attractive and non-funereal as possible, the building featured a ticket office, waiting rooms for mourners (separated from one another for privacy), a mortuary, storage rooms and a luxurious chapel, where those unable to make the journey to the final resting place could pay their respects. Tickets were issued in three classes and also for each coffin to travel, often with up to five funeral parties travelling together on one service (the names of the deceased were displayed on carriage doors to avoid confusion).

Like its predecessor, the second Necropolis station was furnished with a coffin lift and waiting rooms divided by class and religious belief. An oak-panelled chapel was also incorporated where mourners not wishing to catch the train to Brookwood could pay their final respects.

The Necropolis Railway carried its final body- that of 73-year-old Chelsea Pensioner, Edward Irish in May 1941 and was officially dissolved at the end of the war.

The final nail in the coffin

As large cemeteries within London such as Kensal Green, Tower Hamlets and West Norwood developed, ‘passenger’ numbers on the Necropolis Railway dwindled- the figures no doubt also affected by improvements in London’s sanitation and the formal introduction of cremation in the late 19th century.

On the night of 16^th April 1941, the station was hit by a massive air-raid.

Westminster Bridge Road station was never used again, with a declining number of funeral trains running from Waterloo station. Following the end of the war, the London Necropolis Company decided that re-opening the London Necropolis Railway was not financially worthwhile; by 1948 the tracks had been lifted from the private branches off the mainline.

What remains

The other survivor is the railway arches that supported the since vanished platform, and a lot of that space is now occupied by a series of portacabins rented out as artists space by Make Space.

Over at Brookwood, the two stations in the cemetery were converted into bars for use by funeral parties, but the North bar was demolished during the 1960s due to dry rot and the South bar became disused and eventually burnt down in 1972. The platforms and the associated chapels of both cemetery stations still survive.

What next

The surviving building is currently used as an office and became a Listed Grade II building in 1989.

Lambeth Council has recently received an application from developers who want to convert it into five 2-bed flats and one 3-bed flat, with space, increased by adding a rear extension over the back yard.

The council has already indicated that the loss of office space needs to be justified for the application to be approved, although the developer says that the building cannot justifiably be upgraded for modern office requirements, and it’s been difficult to find office tenants for the building in its current state.