Brookwood
All images courtesy Wikimedia Commons
I mentioned Brookwood in a recent blog post. Its name refers to the many small streams or brooks that once rose within the area.
The cholera epidemic of 1848 – 1850 in London created problems of disposal of the dead. An idea was mooted to develop a large cemetery outside the capital and 220 acres of common land in Woking, Surrey, were acquired for the purpose. The London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company (LNC) was instituted by Act of Parliament in June 1852. The first burial was conducted there in 1854.
Bodies were transported to the cemetery from the London Necropolis Railway Station, next to Waterloo, which ran funeral trains to Brookwood. At that time, there were three classes of carriage, according to the class and means of customers. Separate carriages, again in three classes, transported the coffins. Mourners bought return tickets, but coffins were carried on a single ticket!
People selecting a first class funeral could choose and buy a grave site anywhere in the cemetery for £2.10 shillings – that is around £250 at 2024 rates. The LNC expected patrons to erect a memorial stone after the funeral.
Second class funerals were cheaper, about £1 (£100 in 2024) and allowed for some choice of location. If mourners wished to erect a memorial, they paid an extra sum of 10 shillings (£50). If they decided not to buy a memorial, the LNC was entitled to reuse the grave in the future.
Czechoslovakian section
Third class funerals were for the poor. Unlike all other cemeteries at the time, Brookwood did not have mass graves, so each pauper had his or her own grave. If there were a desire to mark the grave with a permanent stone, that could be arranged with an upgrade to a higher class. It rarely happened.
Entrance to Parsi (Parsee) section
About 80% of burials were pauper funerals for London parishes and prisons, and remain unmarked, but the LNC also provided dedicated sections of the cemetery for different societies, religious communities and other organisations. The thinking was that those who had lived and worked together should be allowed to remain together in death. For example, the Royal Hospital Chelsea has buried its Chelsea Pensioners at Brookwood since 1893.
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Brookwood is a peaceful graveyard, set with beautiful flowering shrubs and trees. The objective was to create a sense of ‘perpetual spring’. It is open every day apart from Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and anyone may visit it.
Around 235,000 people have been buried there since 1854.
Notable graves accommodate the American artist John Singer Sargent, Abdullah Quilliam, 19th century convert to Islam, who founded England’s first mosque and Islamic centre, Dennis Wheatley, occult and mystery writer, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, Alfred Bestall, author and illustrator of Rupert Bear, Sarah Eleanor Smith, widow of the Titanic’s captain and Horatia Johnson, granddaughter of Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton.
