The Victorian Era

What Is the Victorian Cemetery Movement

Article · Society & Daily Life · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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The Victorian cemetery movement was a long campaign, beginning in the 1820s and continuing through the 1850s, to establish a new system of burial grounds — large, landscaped, and usually located outside the overcrowded churchyards of the old cities — to replace the inadequate, unsanitary, and overcrowded burial grounds of the old system. The model for the new cemeteries was Père Lachaise in Paris, established in 1804, whose landscaped grounds inspired reformers across Europe. In Britain the movement produced the Glasgow Necropolis (1833), Kensal Green in London (1833), Glasnevin in Dublin (1832), West Norwood (1837), Highgate (1839), Abney Park (1840), Brompton (1840), and Nunhead (1840), which together with Tower Hamlets (1841) became known as the great commercial cemeteries of London; the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh (1846) and Brookwood in Surrey (1852), the vast burial ground of the London Necropolis Company, were the later additions. The new cemeteries are still a feature of the British landscape, and the “Magnificent Seven” of the London cemetery movement are still in use as public parks and gardens.

The Problem of the Old Churchyards

The old churchyards of the Victorian Cities, Transport, and Entertainment of the period were, by the early nineteenth century, in a shocking condition. The churchyards had been the principal burial grounds of the period for centuries, and they had become so overcrowded that the graves were often reopened, the bones were often removed to the charnel house, and the new bodies were often placed on top of the old bodies. The churchyards were also unsanitary, with bones disturbed by every fresh burial and carelessly heaped in charnel houses or scattered about the ground, while the decaying remains were widely believed to contaminate the air and the water supply of the surrounding streets.

The problem of the old churchyards had been the subject of a long series of campaigns by the great sanitary reformers of the period, including Edwin Chadwick, Thomas Southwood Smith, John Simon, and the great medical officers of health of the period. The campaigns had been particularly intense in the great industrial cities of the period, in What was Victorian London like?, in What was Victorian Manchester like?, in How did Birmingham grow in the Victorian era?, in What was Victorian Edinburgh known for?, in the great industrial towns of Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands, the North East, South Wales, and the central belt of Scotland.

The First New Cemeteries

The great model for the new cemeteries was Père Lachaise in Paris, established in 1804, whose 110 acres of landscaped grounds — with winding paths, ornamental trees, lakes, fountains, and mausoleums — inspired reformers across Europe. In Britain the movement produced the Glasgow Necropolis (1833), Kensal Green in London (1833), founded by the General Cemetery Company; Glasnevin in Dublin (1832), founded by the Catholic Association; West Norwood (1837), founded by the South Metropolitan Cemetery Company; Highgate (1839), founded by the London Cemetery Company; Abney Park (1840), founded by the Abney Park Cemetery Company and the only Nonconformist cemetery in London at that date; Brompton (1840), founded by the Royal Parks and Gardens; and Nunhead (1840), founded by the London Cemetery Company. The Brookwood Cemetery (1852), founded by the London Necropolis Company and located some 32 miles from central London, was the largest cemetery in the world, with some 500 acres of grounds.

Most of the early cemeteries were founded by private joint-stock companies, and after the Burial Acts of the 1850s they were followed by hundreds of municipal cemeteries across the country. The Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 placed the burial grounds of the metropolis under the control of the General Board of Health, and the Burial Acts of 1852 and 1857 allowed local boards of health to establish new municipal cemeteries and to close the old intramural burial grounds inside the city. The campaign of the 1830s and 1840s was therefore the foundation of the modern system of municipal cemetery provision.

The Architecture of the New Cemeteries

The new cemeteries were some of the great Victorian Architecture and Interior Design of the period, and the new cemeteries were some of the great Famous Victorian Buildings and Landmarks of the period. The new cemeteries were designed by some of the leading architects of the period. The Egyptian-style gateway at Highgate, with its distinctive Egyptian Revival columns, was designed by James Bunstone Bunning, the City of London’s architect, and erected in 1838. The cemetery chapels and lodges — the Anglican chapel, the Nonconformist chapel, the lodge at the gate — were designed in the Gothic, the Classical, or the Egyptian style of the period. The most prominent architects of the new cemeteries included John Claudius Loudon, the landscape gardener; James Pennethorne, the architect of Victoria Park Cemetery; William Tite, the architect of the Northern Cemetery; Sydney Smirke, the architect of the Brompton Cemetery; Henry Edward Kendall, the architect of the West Norwood Cemetery; and other leading architects of the period.

The new cemeteries were also important for the Victorian Fashion and Dress of the period, with the elaborate mourning dress, the What were Victorian mourning brooches?, the What is Victorian hair jewellery?, the What is Victorian hair jewellery?, the What were Victorian funeral customs?, and the Why was mourning fashion so elaborate?. The new cemeteries were also important for the Victorian Literature, Theatre, and the Written Word of the period, with the great cemetery scenes of the Victorian Novel, the Victorian Poetry, the Victorian Theatre and Drama, and the Children’s Literature in the Victorian Era.

The Magnificent Seven and the American Rural Cemetery

The seven great commercial cemeteries of the London cemetery movement of the 1830s and 1840s — Kensal Green, Highgate, Abney Park, Nunhead, Brompton, West Norwood, and Tower Hamlets — became known as the “Magnificent Seven” of the period, and they are still a feature of the modern London landscape. The cemeteries of the period were the inspiration for the American “rural cemetery” movement of the period, of which Mount Auburn (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1831), Laurel Hill (Philadelphia, 1836), Green-Wood (Brooklyn, 1838), Spring Grove (Cincinnati, 1845), and Forest Hills (Boston, 1848) were the great examples. The American rural cemetery was, in turn, the inspiration for the new American public park of the period, and the great American parks of Central Park (1858), Prospect Park (1867), and Fairmount Park (1844) were the great examples. The Victorian cemetery movement was, in this sense, the foundation of the modern park movement of the period, and the Victorian cemetery was, in turn, the inspiration for the modern public park.

The Victorian cemetery was, and remains, a new institution. The new cemeteries were designed as landscape gardens, with winding paths, with ornamental trees, with lakes, with fountains, with statues, with mausoleums, with chapels, with lodges, with catacombs, with vaults, with graves, with monuments, with inscriptions, with epitaphs, with effigies, with busts, with portraits, with photographs, with flowers, with wreaths, with crosses, and with garlands. The new cemeteries were the Victorian Architecture and Interior Design of the period, and they were the great Victorian Buildings and Landmarks of the period. The Victorian cemetery movement was a major innovation of the Victorian period, and the cemetery movement remains an essential element in the history of the Death and Mourning in the Victorian Era, of the Victorian Architecture and Interior Design, and of the Victorian Medicine and Public Health of the period.