
Opened in November 1854, the London Necropolis Railway was a bizarre transportation system that transported some of the creepiest cargo around. For roughly 87 years, the railway line carried dead bodies from Waterloo Station to Brookwood Cemetery. In fact, the creepy service transported up to 2,000 bodies at one time and took them to the countryside as overcrowding became an increasing issue in London.
Even more bizarre, the London Necropolis Railway would segregate both the dead and the living according to their class and religious persuasion. Westminster Bridge Road was once the headquarters of this depressing enterprise, with the train line originally holding hope it would rival that of Brookwood Cemetry - the largest in the UK.
Coffins were once transported from Waterloo Station all the way to Surrey using this service.
The train line officially began after Cemetery Station was opened, located at number 188, Westminster Bridge Road.
Back then, Brookwood Cemetery was the place where Londoners wanted to be buried as the city's churchyards were notoriously overcrowded.
In fact, the first half of the 19th century saw the population in London shoot up from roughly a million people in 1801 to nearly three times as much by 1851.
This, in turn, posed an increasing problem as to where these citizens should be buried after their death.
The promoters of the London Necropolis Railway had a major ambition to help remedy this overcrowding issue and in turn wanted this service to become London's one and only burial ground.
The newly established railway system would transport both the coffins and the accompanying mourners from London to Brookwood and occasionally back again.
The service would see multiple trains running per day and would use steam-powered lifts that would raise the coffins from the ground and into the train.
Over time, passenger numbers began to increase substantially, with thousands of bodies being buried each year, with Brookwood Cemetery being their final resting place and the vast majority of them using the Necropolis Railway to get there.
Despite its many innovations, the hope for this line did not come to fruition with the London Necropolis Railway later closing down in the 1940's.
This was due to the population steadily decreasing, competition from new municipal cemeteries and the arrival of the motor car that offered a more convenient travel.
The destruction from WWII was the final nail in the coffin of the London Necropolis Company, with the service finally coming to an eerie end.
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