A NOVEL IDEA
1850s London was bursting. The population had doubled between 1801-1850.
There was simply no more space to bury the bodies. And with cremation still taboo, the London Necropolis Railway was founded. The idea was to transport dead bodies and their accompanying mourners out to Surrey by rail for funerals and burials, so everyone in the party (but one) would have a return ticket back to London.
The first Necropolis station
was actually nearer Waterloo Station (about where Leake Street is now) but the
only remaining building (121 Westminster Bridge Road) was the second one, built
in 1902 after Waterloo station expanded.
