Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

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21 October 2009

Discover London's railway for dead people

With Halloween fast approaching, it seems fitting to look at London's former railway for the dead. From the mid 19th Century until the Second World War, the London Necropolis Company ran three-carriage trains to take the dead and their families directly from the Waterloo area to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, where they would be buried.


From 1854 until 1900 trains ran every day, but eventually traffic started to tail off as road transport became more common. Originally the trains left from Waterloo but in 1902 they moved to a purpose-build station on Westminster Bridge Road. However, in 1941 the station was bombed by the Nazis and, due to the decline in passengers, it was never reopened after the war.

You can still find the station at 121 Westminster Bridge Road, just to the south of Waterloo Station. For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Necropolis_railway_station.

^Picture from Wikipedia under Wikimedia Commons^

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