G.D. Falksen's Blog, page 1042
August 20, 2013
August 19, 2013
Is Hannibal more human?
Is Hannibal more human?
The London Necropolis Railway Line
The London Necropolis Railway...
The London Necropolis Railway Line
The London Necropolis Railway Line was a railway line which functioned to transport cadavers and mourners from London to the newly opened Brookwood Cemetery 23 miles away in Surrey. The railway was opened in response to overflowing inner-city cemeteries. Throughout the early 19th century London had been subject to vast industrialisation leading to economic boom and, in turn, increased population with which the city could not cope. For example, the cholera epidemic of the late 1840s, which claimed the lives of 15,000 citizens, led to bodies piling up in the streets as cemeteries became saturated.
When it opening in November 1854, the Necropolis line was given its own platform at Waterloo Station (bodies would be kept in tunnels under the station as they awaited transportation) and a timetabled service saw coffins being transported by night, and mourners by day. The train made two stops; one at an Anglican cemetery and one at a Non-conformist cemetery. The carriages were also divided into classes so that posh dead people wouldn’t have to mingle with poor dead people.
The service was never as popular as had been thought; in its heyday it transported a mere 2300 people a year, as opposed to the 50,000 envisioned for it. It did hang on for almost a century though, “Until the 1940s it remained a weird London institution, a ghoulish Victorian hangover that resisted time, social change and falling demand” [source]. Then, in 1941, bombing by Hitler’s Luftwaffe destroyed the Waterloo terminus and the LNR shipped its last cadaver.
[Sources: Dark Roasted Blend | Wikipedia | Image 2 | Image 3]
Golf Ensemble
1895
The Kyoto Costume Institute
Golf Ensemble
1895
The Kyoto Costume Institute
August 18, 2013
Le Baiser by Gustave Léonard de Jonghe, 1870’s
Le Baiser by Gustave Léonard de Jonghe, 1870’s
