245-403: The London Necropolis Railway was a railway line opened in November 1854 by the London Necropolis Company (LNC), to carry corpses and mourners between London and the LNC's newly opened Brookwood Cemetery , 23 miles (37 km) southwest of London in Brookwood , Surrey . At the time the largest cemetery in the world, Brookwood Cemetery was designed to be large enough to accommodate all
490-436: A temperate bacteriophage called CTXφ . Microbiologists have studied the genetic mechanisms by which the V. cholerae bacteria turn off the production of some proteins and turn on the production of other proteins as they respond to the series of chemical environments they encounter, passing through the stomach, through the mucous layer of the small intestine, and on to the intestinal wall. Of particular interest have been
735-570: A 30-foot (9.1 m) passenger carriage divided into five third class compartments (also used as all second class). Although not recorded, it is likely that other carriages were also permanently loaned to the LNC for use as needed. This set of carriages only remained in use for a short period, and in 1907 was replaced by a new set of carriages of which little is known. In 1917 this set was itself replaced by two 51-foot (16 m) passenger brake vans each containing two first and four third class compartments,
980-538: A 50-foot (15 m) carriage with three first and three third class compartments, and a 46-foot (14 m) carriage with six third class compartments. This set operated for most of the inter-war period, being withdrawn in April 1938. It was replaced by a very similar set of coaches at this time, which was withdrawn in September 1939 after the outbreak of hostilities for use in troop trains. The carriages were replaced by
1225-405: A London labourer just 17 years. Public health policy at this time was shaped by the miasma theory (the belief that airborne particles released by decaying flesh were the primary factor in the spread of contagious illness), and the bad smells and risks of disease caused by piled bodies and exhumed rotting corpses caused great public concern. A royal commission established in 1842 to investigate
1470-428: A day. Severe cholera, without treatment, kills about half of affected individuals. If the severe diarrhea is not treated, it can result in life-threatening dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. Estimates of the ratio of asymptomatic to symptomatic infections have ranged from 3 to 100. Cholera has been nicknamed the "blue death" because a person's skin may turn bluish-gray from extreme loss of fluids. Fever
1715-565: A dedicated columbarium . The LNC also provided the land for a number of significant military cemeteries and memorials at Brookwood after both World Wars . In 1941 London Necropolis railway station , the LNC's London railway terminus, was badly damaged by enemy bombing, and the London Necropolis Railway was abandoned. Rising property prices in Surrey in the 1940s and 1950s made the LNC increasingly valuable, but also made it
1960-662: A dedicated LNC train. For extremely large funerals such as those of major public figures, the LSWR would provide additional trains from Waterloo to Brookwood station on the main line to meet the demand. Charles Bradlaugh , Member of Parliament for Northampton , was a vocal advocate of Indian self-government and a popular figure among the Indian community in London, many of whom attended his funeral on 3 February 1891. Over 5,000 mourners were carried on three long special LSWR trains, one of which
2205-425: A different state of things, the middle and working classes of the metropolis will not be slow in perceiving the advantages of extramural burial, conjointly with a management that frees them from extortion ... To merely provide decency of sepulchre was not, and is not, all. [The LNC] perceived that if it was to work out with any efficiency the problem of extramural burial, it must be its own undertaker, and provide
2450-483: A first class coffin (in 1891 worth about £41 and £138 respectively in 2024 consumer terms). Rival firms of undertakers were not permitted to use the LNC's trains to Brookwood Cemetery and had to pay the much more expensive LSWR fares to transport coffins and mourners from Waterloo to Woking, giving the LNC a significant advantage in carriage to the crematorium. While the LNC never built its own crematorium, in 1910 Lord Cadogan decided he no longer wanted to be interred in
2695-428: A greatly reduced pathogen count—though it will not necessarily be perfectly safe, it is an improvement for poor people with limited options. In Bangladesh this practice was found to decrease rates of cholera by nearly half. It involves folding a sari four to eight times. Between uses the cloth should be rinsed in clean water and dried in the sun to kill any bacteria on it. A nylon cloth appears to work as well but
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#17327871781032940-440: A half million in 1851. Despite this rapid growth in population, the amount of land set aside for use as graveyards remained unchanged at approximately 300 acres (0.5 sq mi; 1.2 km), spread across around 200 small sites. Graveyards became very congested. Decaying corpses contaminated the water supply and the city suffered regular epidemics of cholera, smallpox, measles and typhoid. Public health policy at this time
3185-434: A hand-drawn bier and pulled by LNC staff to the appropriate chapel. While this was taking place the mourners were escorted to the waiting rooms at the station. On arrival at the chapels first and second class funerals would generally have a brief service (third class funerals had a single service in the appropriate chapel for all those being buried). For those burials where the funeral service had already been held at either
3430-415: A level crossing across Cemetery Pales, the road dividing the northern and southern halves of the initial cemetery site. After crossing Cemetery Pales the branch turned east and ran through the southern, Anglican, section, terminating at South station ( 51°17′59″N 0°37′23″W / 51.29977°N 0.62300°W / 51.29977; -0.62300 ) near the road from Bagshot to Guildford (today
3675-587: A long term solution to the crisis, Edwin Chadwick proposed the closure of all existing burial grounds in the vicinity of London other than the privately owned Kensal Green Cemetery in west London. Kensal Green Cemetery was to be nationalised and greatly enlarged to provide a single burial ground for west London. A large tract of land on the Thames around 9 miles (14 km) southeast of London in Abbey Wood (on
3920-534: A massive inoculation program in British India . Persons who survive an episode of cholera have long-lasting immunity for at least 3 years (the period tested.) A number of safe and effective oral vaccines for cholera are available. The World Health Organization (WHO) has three prequalified oral cholera vaccines (OCVs): Dukoral, Sanchol, and Euvichol. Dukoral , an orally administered, inactivated whole-cell vaccine , has an overall efficacy of about 52% during
4165-421: A means to prevent the constantly increasing number of deaths in London from overwhelming the new cemeteries in the same manner in which it had overwhelmed the traditional burial grounds. Edwin Chadwick proposed the closure of all existing burial grounds in the vicinity of London other than the privately owned Kensal Green Cemetery northwest of the city, which was to be nationalised and greatly enlarged to provide
4410-519: A monopoly of the burial industry, and the scheme was not as successful as its promoters had hoped. While they had planned to carry between 10,000 and 50,000 bodies per year, in 1941 after 87 years of operation, only slightly over 200,000 burials had been conducted in Brookwood Cemetery, equalling roughly 2,300 bodies per year. On the night of 16–17 April 1941, the London terminus was badly damaged in an air raid and rendered unusable. Although
4655-472: A new station in return for the existing station. The LNC agreed to the proposals, in return for the LSWR granting the LNC control of the design of the new station and leasing the new station to the LNC for a token rent in perpetuity, providing new rolling stock, removing any limit on the number of passengers using the Necropolis service, and providing the free carriage of machinery and equipment to be used in
4900-541: A non-toxic B-subunit of cholera toxin and providing protection against V. cholerae O1; and two vaccines developed using the same transfer of technology—ShanChol (Shantha Biotec) and Euvichol (EuBiologics Co.), which have bivalent O1 and O139 oral killed cholera vaccines. Oral cholera vaccination could be deployed in a diverse range of situations from cholera-endemic areas and locations of humanitarian crises, but no clear consensus exists. Developed for use in Bangladesh ,
5145-408: A one-million fold increase in numbers of V. cholerae in the environment. The source of the contamination is typically other people with cholera when their untreated diarrheal discharge is allowed to get into waterways, groundwater or drinking water supplies. Drinking any contaminated water and eating any foods washed in the water, as well as shellfish living in the affected waterway , can cause
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#17327871781035390-459: A parish church or the LNC's London terminus the coffins would be taken directly from the train to the grave. The return trains to London generally left South station at 2.15 pm and Necropolis Junction at 2.30 pm; the return journey initially took around an hour owing to the need to stop to refill the engine with water, but following the construction of the water tower in the cemetery this fell to around 40 minutes. An 1854 agreement between
5635-430: A person to contract an infection. Cholera is rarely spread directly from person to person . V. cholerae also exists outside the human body in natural water sources, either by itself or through interacting with phytoplankton , zooplankton , or biotic and abiotic detritus. Drinking such water can also result in the disease, even without prior contamination through fecal matter. Selective pressures exist however in
5880-440: A popular choice for the burial of actors for the same reason, to the extent that actors were provided with a dedicated section of the cemetery near the station entrance. While the majority of burials conducted by the LNC (around 80%) were pauper funerals on behalf of London parishes, the LNC also reached agreement with a number of societies, guilds, religious bodies and similar organisations. The LNC provided dedicated sections of
6125-402: A railway of this unique nature became clearer. Other than brick platform faces, chimneys and foundations, the stations were built entirely of wood. Each station held first class and ordinary reception rooms for mourners, a first class and an ordinary refreshment room, and a set of apartments for LNC staff. To provide an attractive first view of the cemetery for visitors arriving at the stations,
6370-442: A railway trackbed. The rails, and in particular the sleepers , deteriorated rapidly and needed constantly to be replaced. A site for the London terminus near Waterloo had been suggested by Richard Broun. Its proximity to the Thames meant that bodies could be cheaply transported to the terminus by water from much of London, while being situated near three major Thames bridges the area was easily accessed from both north and south of
6615-428: A reception-house, as well as railway transit. This it has done accordingly. The London Necropolis Company offered three classes of funerals: Brookwood was one of the few cemeteries to permit burials on Sundays, which made it a popular choice with the poor as it allowed people to attend funerals without the need to take a day off work. As theatrical performances were banned on Sundays at this time, it also made Brookwood
6860-530: A result of transmission by food, while in developing countries it is more often water. Food transmission can occur when people harvest seafood such as oysters in waters infected with sewage , as Vibrio cholerae accumulates in planktonic crustaceans and the oysters eat the zooplankton . People infected with cholera often have diarrhea, and disease transmission may occur if this highly liquid stool, colloquially referred to as "rice-water", contaminates water used by others. A single diarrheal event can cause
7105-403: A return ticket, while dead passengers were charged £1 in first class, 5s in second class and 2s 6d in third class (in 1854 worth about £119, £30 and £15 respectively in 2024 consumer terms) for a one-way ticket. As the railway was intended only to be used by Londoners visiting the cemetery or attending funerals, the only tickets ever issued to living passengers were returns from London. In 1918
7350-421: A severe case if they become infected. Any individual, even a healthy adult in middle age, can undergo a severe case, and each person's case should be measured by the loss of fluids, preferably in consultation with a professional health care provider . The cystic fibrosis genetic mutation known as delta-F508 in humans has been said to maintain a selective heterozygous advantage : heterozygous carriers of
7595-576: A significant portion, of the burials of London's dead. However, while the Metropolitan Interment Amendment Act 1852 had repealed Chadwick's scheme for two very large cemeteries near London, it had also permitted London's parishes to make their own arrangements for the burial of their dead. Each parish could make arrangements with the cemetery of its choosing, or use money from the rates to create their own cemeteries. The financial mismanagement and internal disputes within
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7840-542: A single burial ground for west London. A large tract of land on the Thames around 9 miles (14 km) southeast of London in Abbey Wood was to become a single burial ground for east London. The Treasury was sceptical that Chadwick's scheme would ever be financially viable, and it was widely unpopular. Although the Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 ( 13 & 14 Vict. c. 52) authorised the scheme, it
8085-466: A slow programme of clearing and restoring the derelict sections of the cemetery commenced. Although it was never as successful as planned, the LNC was very influential in both the funeral industry and in the development of the area around Woking, and Brookwood Cemetery remains the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom. Since the conversion of London to Christianity in the early 7th century,
8330-509: A target for property speculators. In 1959 a hostile takeover succeeded, and LNC's independence came to an end. From 1959 to 1985 a succession of owners stripped the profitable parts of the business from the company, leaving a rump residual company operating the increasingly derelict cemetery. In 1985 what remained of the company came into the ownership of Ramadan Güney , who set about reviving what remained. Links were formed with London's Muslim communities in an effort to encourage new burials, and
8575-400: A thriving market in second hand coffin furniture, coffin wood was burned as household fuel, and exhumed bones were shipped in bulk to the north of England to be sold as fertiliser. Decaying corpses contaminated the water supply and the city suffered regular epidemics of cholera , smallpox , measles and typhoid ; in 1842 the mean working life of a London professional man was 30 years and of
8820-603: A train, and felt that it demeaned the dignity of the deceased for the bodies of respectable members of the community to be carried on a train also carrying the bodies and relatives of those who had led immoral lives. Meanwhile, Henry Drummond , Member of Parliament for the West Surrey constituency which covered the Brookwood site, James Mangles , MP for the nearby constituency of Guildford , and labour reform campaigner Lord Ashley (later Lord Shaftesbury) lobbied against
9065-460: A very substantial saving over main line tickets to Brookwood (in 1902 the 4s LSWR third class fare to Brookwood was twice the cost of the LNC's equivalent). Additional LNC traffic was generated by golfers disguised as mourners travelling to the golf course which had been built on those parts of the land bought by the LNC in 1852 which had not yet been incorporated into the cemetery. The fixed fares prompted complaints from other London funeral firms after
9310-495: A victory for the campaign to end private profiteering from death and that the new scheme would reverse these gains, and was also concerned about the health implications of diseased bodies being transported to and stored at the London terminus in large numbers while awaiting trains to Brookwood. Despite the opposition, on 30 June 1852 the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Act 1852 ( 15 & 16 Vict. c. cxlix)
9555-442: A year (uncertainty range: 21,000–143,000) as of 2015 . This occurs mainly in the developing world. In the early 1980s, death rates are believed to have still been higher than three million a year. It is difficult to calculate exact numbers of cases, as many go unreported due to concerns that an outbreak may have a negative impact on the tourism of a country. As of 2004, cholera remained both epidemic and endemic in many areas of
9800-555: A year. To date, seven cholera pandemics have occurred, with the most recent beginning in 1961, and continuing today. The illness is rare in high-income countries , and affects children most severely. Cholera occurs as both outbreaks and chronically in certain areas . Areas with an ongoing risk of disease include Africa and Southeast Asia . The risk of death among those affected is usually less than 5%, given improved treatment, but may be as high as 50% without such access to treatment. Descriptions of cholera are found as early as
10045-596: Is endemic . If people are immunized broadly, herd immunity results, with a decrease in the amount of contamination in the environment. WHO recommends that oral cholera vaccination be considered in areas where the disease is endemic (with seasonal peaks), as part of the response to outbreaks, or in a humanitarian crisis during which the risk of cholera is high. Oral Cholera Vaccine (OCV) has been recognized as an adjunct tool for prevention and control of cholera. The World Health Organization (WHO) has prequalified three bivalent cholera vaccines—Dukoral (SBL Vaccines), containing
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10290-547: Is oral rehydration salts (ORS), the replacement of fluids and electrolytes by using slightly sweet and salty solutions. Rice-based solutions are preferred. In children, zinc supplementation has also been found to improve outcomes. In severe cases, intravenous fluids , such as Ringer's lactate , may be required, and antibiotics may be beneficial. The choice of antibiotic is aided by antibiotic sensitivity testing . Cholera continues to affect an estimated 3–5 million people worldwide and causes 28,800–130,000 deaths
10535-422: Is a common problem. Stool and swab samples collected in the acute stage of the disease, before antibiotics have been administered, are the most useful specimens for laboratory diagnosis. If an epidemic of cholera is suspected, the most common causative agent is V. cholerae O1. If V. cholerae serogroup O1 is not isolated, the laboratory should test for V. cholerae O139. However, if neither of these organisms
10780-503: Is a common source. Humans are the only known host for the bacteria . Risk factors for the disease include poor sanitation , insufficient clean drinking water , and poverty . Cholera can be diagnosed by a stool test , or a rapid dipstick test , although the dipstick test is less accurate. Prevention methods against cholera include improved sanitation and access to clean water . Cholera vaccines that are given by mouth provide reasonable protection for about six months, and confer
11025-476: Is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae . Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea lasting a few days. Vomiting and muscle cramps may also occur. Diarrhea can be so severe that it leads within hours to severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance . This may result in sunken eyes , cold skin, decreased skin elasticity, and wrinkling of
11270-442: Is available to determine the presence of V. cholerae . In those samples that test positive, further testing should be done to determine antibiotic resistance. In epidemic situations, a clinical diagnosis may be made by taking a patient history and doing a brief examination. Treatment via hydration and over-the-counter hydration solutions can be started without or before confirmation by laboratory analysis, especially where cholera
11515-446: Is effective for adults aged 18–64 as a single dose. One injectable vaccine was found to be effective for two to three years. The protective efficacy was 28% lower in children less than five years old. However, as of 2010 , it has limited availability. Work is under way to investigate the role of mass vaccination. The WHO recommends immunization of high-risk groups, such as children and people with HIV , in countries where this disease
11760-416: Is increasing within cholera bacteria. In Bangladesh , for example, most cases are resistant to tetracycline , trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole , and erythromycin . Rapid diagnostic assay methods are available for the identification of multi-drug resistant cases. New generation antimicrobials have been discovered which are effective against cholera bacteria in in vitro studies. A rapid dipstick test
12005-487: Is isolated, it is necessary to send stool specimens to a reference laboratory. Infection with V. cholerae O139 should be reported and handled in the same manner as that caused by V. cholerae O1. The associated diarrheal illness should be referred to as cholera and must be reported in the United States. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends focusing on prevention, preparedness, and response to combat
12250-460: Is less in those with lowered gastric acidity (for instance those using proton pump inhibitors ). Children are also more susceptible, with two- to four-year-olds having the highest rates of infection. Individuals' susceptibility to cholera is also affected by their blood type , with those with type O blood being the most susceptible. Persons with lowered immunity , such as persons with AIDS or malnourished children, are more likely to develop
12495-754: Is maintained. The WHO only recommends antibiotics in those with severe dehydration. Doxycycline is typically used first line, although some strains of V. cholerae have shown resistance . Testing for resistance during an outbreak can help determine appropriate future choices. Other antibiotics proven to be effective include cotrimoxazole , erythromycin , tetracycline , chloramphenicol , and furazolidone . Fluoroquinolones , such as ciprofloxacin , also may be used, but resistance has been reported. Antibiotics improve outcomes in those who are both severely and not severely dehydrated. Azithromycin and tetracycline may work better than doxycycline or ciprofloxacin . In Bangladesh zinc supplementation reduced
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#173278717810312740-469: Is not as affordable. Continued eating speeds the recovery of normal intestinal function. The WHO recommends this generally for cases of diarrhea no matter what the underlying cause. A CDC training manual specifically for cholera states: "Continue to breastfeed your baby if the baby has watery diarrhea, even when traveling to get treatment. Adults and older children should continue to eat frequently." The most common error in caring for patients with cholera
12985-416: Is not certain how many hearse vans were delivered, and how they were used; records suggest that anything between three and ten hearse vans were bought or leased by the LNC in the early years of operations. (As each van carried 12–14 coffins and it is known that some funeral trains in the late 19th century carried over 60 coffins, at least six hearse vans must have been in use.) As part of the settlement during
13230-442: Is rapid and thready, and urine output decreases with time. Muscle cramping and weakness, altered consciousness, seizures , or even coma due to electrolyte imbalances are common, especially in children. Cholera bacteria have been found in shellfish and plankton . Transmission is usually through the fecal-oral route of contaminated food or water caused by poor sanitation . Most cholera cases in developed countries are
13475-412: Is rare and should raise suspicion for secondary infection. Patients can be lethargic and might have sunken eyes, dry mouth, cold clammy skin, or wrinkled hands and feet. Kussmaul breathing , a deep and labored breathing pattern, can occur because of acidosis from stool bicarbonate losses and lactic acidosis associated with poor perfusion . Blood pressure drops due to dehydration, peripheral pulse
13720-406: Is rare. For example, the last major outbreak of cholera in the United States occurred in 1910–1911. Cholera is mainly a risk in developing countries in those areas where access to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) infrastructure is still inadequate. Effective sanitation practices, if instituted and adhered to in time, are usually sufficient to stop an epidemic. There are several points along
13965-420: Is recorded about the number and specifications of the carriages. The same set of carriages remained in use for over 40 years, prompting increasingly strong complaints from the LNC about their deteriorating quality. As part of an 1896 agreement by which the LSWR re-equipped the LNC in conjunction with the repositioning of the LNC's London terminus, the LNC demanded that the new passenger carriages to be supplied by
14210-586: Is the preferred solution, often with added potassium. Large volumes and continued replacement until diarrhea has subsided may be needed. Ten percent of a person's body weight in fluid may need to be given in the first two to four hours. This method was first tried on a mass scale during the Bangladesh Liberation War , and was found to have much success. Despite widespread beliefs, fruit juices and commercial fizzy drinks like cola are not ideal for rehydration of people with serious infections of
14455-404: Is to underestimate the speed and volume of fluids required. In most cases, cholera can be successfully treated with oral rehydration therapy (ORT), which is highly effective, safe, and simple to administer. Rice-based solutions are preferred to glucose-based ones due to greater efficiency. In severe cases with significant dehydration, intravenous rehydration may be necessary. Ringer's lactate
14700-516: The A322 ) which marked the eastern boundary of the site. Along with the major roads and paths in the cemetery, the entire branch was lined with giant sequoia trees, the first significant planting of these trees (only introduced to Europe in 1853) in Britain. Aside from a short 100-yard (91 m) siding just south of Cemetery Pales, built in 1904–05 to serve the LNC's new masonry workshop, the layout of
14945-746: The Act to Amend the Laws Concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis (Burials Act) was passed in 1851. Under the Burials Act, new burials were prohibited in what were then the built-up areas of London. Seven large cemeteries had recently opened a short distance from the centre of London or were in the process of opening, and temporarily became London's main burial grounds. The government sought
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#173278717810315190-645: The Ancient Order of Foresters to the Corps of Commissionaires and the LSWR. The Nonconformist cemetery also includes a Parsee burial ground established in 1862, which as of 2011 remains the only Zoroastrian burial ground in Europe. Dedicated sections in the Anglican cemetery were also reserved for burials from those parishes which had made burial arrangements with the LNC. Immediately after its foundation
15435-449: The Gs alpha subunit of the heterotrimeric G protein . This results in constitutive cAMP production, which in turn leads to the secretion of water, sodium, potassium, and bicarbonate into the lumen of the small intestine and rapid dehydration. The gene encoding the cholera toxin was introduced into V. cholerae by horizontal gene transfer . Virulent strains of V. cholerae carry a variant of
15680-537: The Home Secretary , bowed to strong protests from local residents and threatened to prosecute if any cremations were conducted. As a consequence the crematorium was not used other than for the experimental incineration of livestock. The 1884 trial of William Price established that human cremation was not unlawful in England, and on 26 March 1885 the first human cremation took place at Woking. Although
15925-406: The human stomach . The few surviving bacteria conserve their energy and stored nutrients during the passage through the stomach by shutting down protein production. When the surviving bacteria exit the stomach and reach the small intestine , they must propel themselves through the thick mucus that lines the small intestine to reach the intestinal walls where they can attach and thrive. Once
16170-479: The potassium level may be normal, even though large losses have occurred. As the dehydration is corrected, potassium levels may decrease rapidly, and thus need to be replaced. This is best done by Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). Antibiotic treatments for one to three days shorten the course of the disease and reduce the severity of the symptoms. Use of antibiotics also reduces fluid requirements. People will recover without them, however, if sufficient hydration
16415-411: The "sari filter" is a simple and cost-effective appropriate technology method for reducing the contamination of drinking water. Used sari cloth is preferable but other types of used cloth can be used with some effect, though the effectiveness will vary significantly. Used cloth is more effective than new cloth, as the repeated washing reduces the space between the fibers. Water collected in this way has
16660-471: The 1852 Act but had not yet been completed, easing the immediate financial burden. It also allowed a ten-year window for the LNC to sell certain parts of the land bought from Lord Onslow which were not required for the cemetery, to provide a source of income. Although the 1855 Act permitted the LNC to sell land, this proved difficult. Of the 2,200-acre (3.4 sq mi; 8.9 km ) site, around 700 acres (1.1 sq mi; 2.8 km ) were occupied by
16905-403: The 1864 improvements to Necropolis Junction, locomotives rarely entered the cemetery branch line itself and the trains were generally hauled along the branch line by horses.) Towards the end of the railway's operations in the 1930s the route was almost always worked by LSWR M7 class locomotives, usually No. 255. The passenger carriages used on the London Necropolis Railway were not owned by
17150-548: The 1880s the LNC began a more aggressive programme to maximise its income. The process for the sale of surplus land was improved, resulting in increased income. The LNC redeveloped its lands at Hook Heath into housing and a golf course, creating a new suburb of Woking and providing a steady income from rentals. After an 1884 ruling that cremation was lawful in England the LNC also took advantage of its proximity to Woking Crematorium by providing transport for bodies and mourners on its railway line and after 1910 by interring ashes in
17395-509: The 18th century this land had been nicknamed "the Waste of Woking", and with poor quality gravel soil it was of little use in farming and thus available very cheaply. The London and South Western Railway (LSWR)—which had connected London to Woking in 1838—would enable bodies and mourners to be shipped from London to the site easily and cheaply. Broun envisaged dedicated coffin trains, each carrying 50–60 bodies, travelling from London to
17640-457: The 5th century BC in Sanskrit . In Europe, cholera was a term initially used to describe any kind of gastroenteritis, and was not used for this disease until the early 19th century. The study of cholera in England by John Snow between 1849 and 1854 led to significant advances in the field of epidemiology because of his insights about transmission via contaminated water, and a map of the same
17885-563: The April 1941 suspension of London Necropolis Railway services, for the occasional funerals conducted by the LNC using the SR's platforms at Waterloo station, but the SR only allowed mourners attending funerals to use these cheap fares and not those visiting the cemetery. I did it wholesale and had 220 very large cases made each containing 26 human bodies besides children and these weighed 4 3 ⁄ 4 cwt. There were 1,035 cwt of human remains sent in these cases alone. They were conveyed in
18130-570: The Brookwood end, were designated the initial cemetery site, and a branch railway line was built from the LSWR main line into this section. A plot of land between Westminster Bridge Road and York Street (now Leake Street) was chosen as the site for the London railway terminus. Architect William Tite and engineer William Cubitt drew up a design for a station, which was approved in June 1854, and completed in October 1854. In July 1854 work began on
18375-562: The Christian Public, but also, if desired and deemed expedient, into as many separate compartments as there are parishes within London and its suburbs ... [and] a Mausoleum Church, with funeral chapels, private mausolea, vaults, and catacombs, large enough to contain, not only the thousands of coffins now lying within our numerous Metropolitan Churches, but also the coffins of all such dying in London, in this and future generations ... [A] grand and befitting gathering place for
18620-523: The LNC also envisaged the physical relocation of the closed burial grounds to their Necropolis, to provide a final solution to the problems caused by burials in built-up areas. The massive London civil engineering projects of the mid-19th century—the railways, the sewer system and from the 1860s the precursors to the London Underground —often necessitated the demolition of existing churchyards. The first major relocation took place in 1862, when
18865-451: The LNC and LSWR gave consent for the LNC to operate two or three funeral trains each day if demand warranted it, but traffic levels never rose to a sufficient level to activate this clause. The train ran only if there was a coffin or passengers at the London terminus waiting to use it, and both the journey from London to Brookwood and the later return would be cancelled if nobody was due to leave London that morning. It would not run if there
19110-473: The LNC continued to operate occasional funeral services from Waterloo station to Brookwood railway station immediately north of the cemetery, the London Necropolis Railway was never used again. Soon after the end of the Second World War the surviving parts of the London station were sold as office space, and the rail tracks in the cemetery were removed. The part of the London building which housed
19355-426: The LNC had delayed the opening of Brookwood Cemetery by 18 months, and during this period new cemeteries nearer London had opened or were nearing completion. While some parishes did choose Brookwood as their burial site, many preferred either to make arrangements with less distant cemeteries, or to buy land on the outskirts of London and open their own suburban cemeteries. Concerns over the financial irregularities and
19600-616: The LNC had specified maximum ticket prices for the railway, and traffic never rose to the level at which it would have been justified for either the LNC or the LSWR to undertake costly and time-consuming lobbying for a change in the legislation. As a consequence, despite the effects of inflation, competition and variable costs the fares of the London Necropolis Railway never changed throughout the first 85 of its 87 years of operation. Live passengers were charged 6s in first class, 3s 6d in second class and 2s in third class (in 1854 worth about £36, £21 and £12 respectively in 2024 consumer terms) for
19845-400: The LNC led to Broun and Sprye losing control of the scheme, and later delays and allegations of mismanagement caused further changes to the scheme's management. In September 1853 under a new board of trustees work began on the scheme. A site for the London rail terminus was identified and leased, and a 2,200-acre (3.4 sq mi; 8.9 km) tract of land stretching from Woking to Brookwood
20090-414: The LNC used existing firms of London undertakers to arrange funerals, but over time took over all aspects of the arrangements from coffin-making to masonry. LNC funerals were intentionally kept as similar as possible to those of traditional undertakers, with the exception that a railway carriage was used in place of a hearse. On being commissioned to provide a funeral, invitations would be sent out either by
20335-521: The LNC was hostile to the idea of cremation, Woking Crematorium was the only operational crematorium in the country. Since the Necropolis Railway provided the easiest way to transport bodies and mourners from London to the Woking area, transport to and from Woking Crematorium soon began to provide a significant source of revenue for the LNC. Cremation remained unusual and very expensive;
20580-532: The LNC's offices survives today. The two stations in the cemetery remained open as refreshment kiosks for some years afterwards but were subsequently demolished. The site of the northern station, serving the Nonconformist cemetery, is now heavily overgrown. The site of the southern, Anglican, station is now the location of a Russian Orthodox monastery and a shrine to King Edward the Martyr , which incorporate
20825-435: The LNC, but loaned from the LSWR. A set of carriages was permanently loaned, rather than carriages being lent as needed, as the LSWR was concerned that passengers might be discouraged from using regular LSWR services if they knew that their carriages had potentially carried dead bodies recently. The original set of carriages, used between 1854 and 1899, were four-wheeled carriages to a design by Joseph Hamilton Beattie . Little
21070-418: The LSWR (which provided the LNC's passenger carriages) abandoned second class services and the LNC as a consequence discontinued the sale of second class fares to living passengers, but continued to separate coffin tickets into first, second and third class dependent on the type of funeral booked. Intentionally set at a low level at the time the cemetery and railway opened, in later years the fixed fares offered
21315-541: The LSWR be "of a quality and a character not inferior to [the LSWR's] ordinary main line traffic". These new carriages were supplied late in the 19th century, probably in December 1899. They were all six-wheeled, and comprised two 30-foot (9.1 m) passenger brake vans each containing three third class compartments, a baggage compartment and the guard's compartment; a 34-foot (10 m) passenger carriage divided into three first class and two second class compartments; and
21560-475: The LSWR lines. The London Necropolis Company offered three classes of funerals, which also determined the type of railway ticket sold to mourners and the deceased. A first class funeral allowed the person buying the funeral to select the grave site of their choice anywhere in the cemetery; at the time of opening prices began at £2 10 s (about £296 in 2024 terms) for a basic 9-by-4-foot (2.7 m × 1.2 m) plot with no special coffin specifications. It
21805-452: The LSWR were concerned at the impact the cemetery scheme would have on the normal operations of the railway. At a shareholders' meeting in August 1852 concerns were raised about the impact of funeral trains on normal traffic and of the secrecy in which negotiations between the LSWR and the promoters of the cemetery were conducted. The LSWR management pledged that no concessions would be made to
22050-475: The London terminus waiting to use it, and both the journey from London to Brookwood and the later return would be cancelled if nobody was due to leave London that morning. It would not run if there was only a single third or second class coffin to be carried, and in these cases the coffin and funeral party would be held until the next service. Generally the trains ran direct from London to the cemetery, other than occasional stops to take on water. Between 1890 and 1910
22295-409: The London terminus; the other was transferred to the SR and remained in use until at least 1950. The former Royal Train brought into passenger service on the London Necropolis Railway in 1939 had a large amount of luggage space, and it is probable that when funeral traffic was light the hearse vans were not used and the coffins carried in the luggage space. On William Cubitt's advice the two stations in
22540-519: The Sunday trains were discontinued, and from 1902 the daily train service was ended and trains ran only as required. On some occasions where there were very large numbers of mourners the LSWR would provide special passenger trains from Waterloo to their own station at Brookwood to carry additional mourners to the vicinity of the cemetery. As well as intending to conduct those burials which would previously have taken place in London's now-closed graveyards,
22785-548: The United Kingdom, whose bodies had been carried to Brookwood by rail from the American execution facilities at Shepton Mallet . They were not transferred to Cambridge in 1948, but instead reburied in unmarked graves at Oise-Aisne American Cemetery Plot E , a dedicated site for US servicemen executed during the Second World War.) The railway service had been suspended in 1941, and North station (renamed North Bar after
23030-580: The United States Army , 3,600 bodies of US servicemen were exhumed in January–May 1948 and shipped to the United States for reburial. The railway service had been suspended in 1941, and North station (renamed North Bar after the ending of rail services) was used as a temporary mortuary to hold these bodies while awaiting shipment to the USA. On the retirement in 1956 of a Mr and Mrs Dendy, who operated
23275-566: The added benefit of protecting against another type of diarrhea caused by E. coli . In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a single-dose, live, oral cholera vaccine called Vaxchora for adults aged 18–64 who are travelling to an area of active cholera transmission. It offers limited protection to young children. People who survive an episode of cholera have long-lasting immunity for at least three years (the period tested). The primary treatment for affected individuals
23520-428: The appropriate chapel for all those being buried). For those burials where the funeral service had already been held at either a parish church or the LNC's London terminus the coffins would be taken directly from the train to the grave. North station, serving Roman Catholics , Parsees , Jews and Nonconformist Christians as well as some groups with dedicated plots in the northern cemetery such as actors and Oddfellows ,
23765-474: The aquatic environment that may reduce the virulence of V. cholerae . Specifically, animal models indicate that the transcriptional profile of the pathogen changes as it prepares to enter an aquatic environment. This transcriptional change results in a loss of ability of V. cholerae to be cultured on standard media, a phenotype referred to as ' viable but non-culturable ' (VBNC) or more conservatively ' active but non-culturable ' (ABNC). One study indicates that
24010-461: The areas around the stations and their associated chapels were planted with groves of bay , Cedar of Lebanon , rhododendron and Portuguese laurel . At the time the cemetery opened, the nearest railway station other than those on the cemetery branch was Woking railway station , 4 miles (6.4 km) away. As only one train per day ran from London to the cemetery stations and back, and even that ran only when funerals were due to take place, access to
24255-510: The authority of Thomas B. Larkin , Quartermaster General of the United States Army , the US servicemen buried at Brookwood during the Second World War were exhumed in January–May 1948. Those whose next of kin requested it were shipped to the United States for reburial, and the remaining bodies were transferred to the new cemetery outside Cambridge. (Brookwood American Cemetery had also been the burial site for those US servicemen executed while serving in
24500-410: The available space and covered with a layer of earth. In more crowded areas even relatively fresh graves had to be exhumed to free up space for new burials, their contents being unearthed and scattered to free up space. In some cases large pits were dug on existing burial grounds, unearthing the previous burials, and fresh corpses crammed into the available space. Intact material from burials was sold on
24745-503: The basis that the cemetery would handle between 10,000 and 50,000 burials per year, but the number never exceeded 4,100 and over its first 20 years of operations averaged just 3,200. As the five-year extension expired the financial difficulties remained, and under pressure from shareholders the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Amendment Act 1869 was passed. This removed all restrictions on land sales, other than within
24990-401: The branch remained unchanged throughout its operation. In 1914 a brick water tower was added near the masonry works siding, to allow the LNC's locomotives to refill their tanks before returning to London and thus avoid the need to interrupt their journey to refill at Woking. The poor quality gravel soil, which had been the initial reason for the site's cheapness and its selection as the site for
25235-457: The carriages would be uncoupled from the locomotive. A team of black horses would then haul the carriages down the sloping branch line to the two cemetery stations. While the train was on the branch line the locomotive would be repositioned to be at the front of the train once the horses drew it back out of the branch onto the main line. In 1864 Brookwood (Necropolis) railway station on the LSWR opened, immediately east of Necropolis Junction. When
25480-522: The cemeteries across surrounding areas. Although the Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 authorised Chadwick's scheme to proceed, section 1 of the Burial Act 1852 repealed the authorisation. An area of ground so distant as to be beyond any possible future extension of the Capital, sufficiently large to allow of its sub-division, not only into spacious distinct portions for the burial of each sect of
25725-400: The cemetery could travel on any LSWR train to Waterloo, Vauxhall or Clapham Junction . A site for the replacement terminus was bought by the LSWR in 1899, south of the existing site and on the opposite side of Westminster Bridge Road. The new station was completed on 8 February 1902, and the LSWR viaduct was widened to serve a greatly enlarged Waterloo station, destroying all traces of
25970-578: The cemetery for these groups, on the basis that those who had lived or worked together in life could remain together after death. Although the LNC was never able to gain the domination of London's funeral industry for which its founders had hoped, it was very successful at targeting specialist groups of artisans and trades, to the extent that it became nicknamed "the Westminster Abbey of the middle classes". A large number of these dedicated plots were established, ranging from Chelsea Pensioners and
26215-488: The cemetery operators, other than promising them the use of one train each day. Charles James Blomfield , Bishop of London was hostile in general to railway funeral schemes, arguing that the noise and speed of the railways was incompatible with the solemnity of the Christian burial service. Blomfield also considered it inappropriate that the families of people from very different backgrounds would potentially have to share
26460-414: The cemetery was difficult for mourners and LNC staff. Although in the negotiations leading to the creation of the cemetery the LSWR had told the LNC that they planned to build a main line station near the cemetery, they had not done so. On 1 June 1864 the LSWR finally opened Brookwood railway station on their main line, immediately adjacent to the cemetery. A substantial commuter village grew around
26705-454: The cemetery were built as temporary structures, in the expectation that they would need to be rebuilt once the railway was operational and the issues with operating a railway of this unique nature became clearer. Both were designed by Sydney Smirke , who presented his designs to the LNC in March 1854. Each station was built as a one-storey building around a square courtyard. The side adjacent to
26950-411: The cemetery, and the first burial (that of the stillborn twins of a Mr and Mrs Hore of Ewer Street, Borough ) took place. A very few years ago, the idea of founding a cemetery for the metropolis which should be more than 20 miles distant from it would have been looked upon as an absurdity. Yesterday, however, saw the practical embodiment of this idea ... A short distance beyond the Woking station,
27195-480: The cemetery, no matter which arrangement was used the hearse van would inevitably be at the rear of the train for part of the journey.) The LNC ordered six hearse vans in 1854, two of which were operational at the time the cemetery and Necropolis Railway opened. Their origins are not recorded, although they were bought very cheaply suggesting that they were conversions of existing carriages rather than built to order. Many LNC records from this period have been lost and it
27440-433: The cemetery, the private Act of Parliament authorising the scheme bound the LSWR to carry corpses and mourners to the cemetery in perpetuity and set a maximum tariff which could be levied on funeral traffic, but did not specify detail of how the funeral trains were to operate. Broun's scheme had envisaged the cemetery running along both sides of the LSWR main line and divided by religion, with separate private railway halts on
27685-454: The cemetery, was poorly suited as a railway trackbed. The LNC's rails, and in particular its sleepers , deteriorated rapidly and needed constantly to be replaced. In the early years of operation, locomotives hauling the trains from Waterloo would not travel down the branch into the cemetery, as it would leave them at the wrong end of the train for the return journey. Instead, the train would stop immediately after passing Necropolis Junction, and
27930-463: The cemetery. Although the LSWR was extremely unhappy at what they considered excessive demands, in May 1899 the companies signed an agreement, in which the LSWR gave in to every LNC demand. In addition the LSWR paid £12,000 compensation (about £1.71 million in terms of 2024 consumer spending power) for the inconvenience of relocating the LNC station and offices, and agreed that mourners returning from
28175-422: The cholera bacteria reach the intestinal wall, they no longer need the flagella to move. The bacteria stop producing the protein flagellin to conserve energy and nutrients by changing the mix of proteins that they express in response to the changed chemical surroundings. On reaching the intestinal wall, V. cholerae start producing the toxic proteins that give the infected person a watery diarrhea. This carries
28420-612: The cholera transmission path at which its spread may be halted: Handwashing with soap or ash after using a toilet and before handling food or eating is also recommended for cholera prevention by WHO Africa. Surveillance and prompt reporting allow for containing cholera epidemics rapidly. Cholera exists as a seasonal disease in many endemic countries, occurring annually mostly during rainy seasons . Surveillance systems can provide early alerts to outbreaks, therefore leading to coordinated response and assist in preparation of preparedness plans. Efficient surveillance systems can also improve
28665-456: The city's dead had been buried in and around the local churches. With a limited amount of space for burials, the oldest graves were regularly exhumed to free space for new burials, and the remains of the previous occupants transferred to charnel houses for storage. From the 14th century onwards the charnel houses themselves were overwhelmed, and exhumed bones were scattered where they had been dug up or reburied in pits. Despite this practice, by
28910-425: The coffin reception rooms at each station were converted into "pauper waiting rooms". Neither station was equipped with gas or electricity; throughout their existence the buildings were lit by oil lamps and coal ranges were used for heating and cooking. The platform faces themselves incorporated an indentation, one brick-width deep and the width of the courtyard. This indentation facilitated the unloading of coffins from
29155-422: The coffins being loaded onto the train if they so wished. (After the relocation to the new London terminus in 1902, some funeral services would be held in a Chapelle Ardente on platform level, for those cases where mourners were unable to make the journey to Brookwood. ) Each door of the waiting train would be labelled with the name of the deceased, to ensure all passengers travelled with the correct funeral party;
29400-428: The coffins being stored on the cemetery site until the time of the funeral. Mourners would then be carried to the appropriate part of the cemetery by a dedicated passenger train during the day. Broun calculated that a 1,500-acre (2.3 sq mi; 6.1 km) site would accommodate a total of 5,830,500 individual graves in a single layer. If the practice of only burying a single family in each grave were abandoned and
29645-427: The company unable to pay promised dividends, a number of the directors resigned, including Voules, and the remaining public confidence in the scheme collapsed. Broun's scheme had envisaged the cemetery running along both sides of the LSWR main line and divided by religion, with separate private railway halts on the main line, each incorporating a chapel, to serve each religion's section. The new consulting engineer to
29890-402: The company, William Cubitt , rejected this idea and recommended a single site to the south of the railway line, served by a private branch line through the cemetery. The company also considered Broun's plan for dedicated coffin trains unrealistic, arguing that relatives would not want the coffins to be shipped separately from the deceased's family. In September 1853 a Committee of Enquiry into
30135-424: The compartments of the train, both for living and for dead passengers, were partitioned by both religion and class to prevent both mourners and cadavers from different social backgrounds from mixing. As well as the regular funeral traffic, the London Necropolis Railway was used to transport large numbers of exhumed bodies during the mass removal of a number of London graveyards to Brookwood. The company failed to gain
30380-500: The construction of Charing Cross railway station and the routes into it necessitated the demolition of the burial ground of Cure's College in Southwark . Around 5,000 cubic yards (3,800 m ) of earth was displaced, uncovering at least 7,950 bodies. These were packed into 220 large containers, each containing 26 adults plus children, and shipped on the London Necropolis Railway to Brookwood for reburial, along with at least some of
30625-449: The cost of a cremation at Woking was £6, not including transport and funeral costs, more than twice the £2 10s cost of a first class burial at Brookwood. By 1891 only 177 people had been cremated at Woking. Cyril Tubbs recognised that a potential increase in cremations once the practice became accepted represented an opportunity for the LNC. In July 1891 he proposed that the LNC build its own crematorium and columbarium (building for
30870-488: The country, without varying from its general character of sterility and hardness of outline, becomes gently undulating and offers features which, with some assistance from art, might be made more than pleasing. Here is the London Necropolis, which certainly throws into the shade any previous attempts at extramural interments. It was fitting enough that the largest city in the world should have, as it will now have,
31115-424: The culturability of V. cholerae drops 90% within 24 hours of entering the water, and furthermore that this loss in culturability is associated with a loss in virulence. Both toxic and non-toxic strains exist. Non-toxic strains can acquire toxicity through a temperate bacteriophage . About 100 million bacteria must typically be ingested to cause cholera in a normal healthy adult. This dose, however,
31360-477: The deaths in London for centuries to come, and the LNC hoped to gain a monopoly on London's burial industry. The cemetery had intentionally been built far enough from London so as never to be affected by urban growth and was dependent on the recently invented railway to connect it to the city. The railway mostly ran along the existing tracks of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) but had its own branches from
31605-425: The deceased's family or from the LNC offices. These letters specified the waiting room to be used, the time of the train to Brookwood, and the expected return time to London. If the funeral was to be held in London, a traditional hearse and carriage would take the deceased to their parish church for the service, and then on to the London railway terminus; if the funeral was to take place in the terminus or in Brookwood,
31850-445: The drainage of the marshlands designated as the initial cemetery site, and on the construction of the embankment carrying the railway branch into the cemetery. With the ambition to become London's sole burial site in perpetuity, the LNC were aware that if their plans were successful, their Necropolis would become a site of major national importance. As a consequence, the cemetery was designed with attractiveness in mind, in contrast to
32095-433: The duration and severity of diarrhea in children with cholera when given with antibiotics and rehydration therapy as needed. It reduced the length of disease by eight hours and the amount of diarrhea stool by 10%. Supplementation appears to be also effective in both treating and preventing infectious diarrhea due to other causes among children in the developing world. If people with cholera are treated quickly and properly,
32340-520: The emerging technology of mechanised land transport to provide a final solution to the problem of London's dead. They envisaged buying a single very large tract of land around 23 miles (37 km) from London in Brookwood near Woking , Surrey , to be called Brookwood Cemetery or the London Necropolis. At this distance, the land would be far beyond the maximum projected size of the city's growth, greatly reducing any potential hazards from miasma. In
32585-490: The ending of rail services) was used as a temporary mortuary to hold these bodies while awaiting shipment to the USA or Cambridge. As the branch line into the cemetery was no longer in use, temporary platforms were built on the branch line serving the National Rifle Association 's shooting range at Bisley , on the opposite side of the LSWR line from the cemetery. Following the removal of the US war graves
32830-612: The entry of the United States into the Second World War the American cemetery was enlarged, with burials of US servicemen beginning in April 1942. With large numbers of American personnel based in the west of England, a dedicated rail service for the transport of bodies operated from Devonport to Brookwood. By August 1944 over 3,600 bodies had been buried in the American Military Cemetery. At this time burials were discontinued, and US casualties were from then on buried at Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial . On
33075-506: The existing cemetery and the adjacent reserve site. Despite the releasing of restrictions in the 1869 Act, land sales remained disappointing. By 1887 less than half the surplus land had been sold, much of it at very low prices. In 1878 the Cremation Society of Great Britain bought an isolated piece of the LNC's Brookwood land and built Woking Crematorium on the site. The crematorium was completed in 1879 but Richard Cross ,
33320-445: The existing headstones from the cemetery, at a cost of around 3 shillings per body. At least 21 London burial grounds were relocated to Brookwood via the railway, along with numerous others relocated by road following the railway's closure. The LNC's exhumation and relocation business, split from the LNC in 1973 and renamed "Necropolis", continued to operate until 2002. The success of the LNC relied on taking over all, or at least
33565-510: The fares. The live passenger rates rose to 7s 5d in first class and 2s 6d in third class, with equivalent changes to the fares for coffins. These fares remained far cheaper than the equivalent fares from Waterloo to Brookwood for both living and dead passengers on the Southern Railway (SR), which had absorbed the LSWR in the 1923 restructuring of Britain's railways . The fare structure of January 1941 remained in use following
33810-519: The first half of the 19th century the population of London more than doubled, from a little under a million people in 1801 to almost two and a half million in 1851. Despite this rapid growth in population, the amount of land set aside for use as graveyards remained unchanged at approximately 300 acres (0.47 sq mi; 1.2 km ), spread across around 200 small sites. The difficulty of digging without disturbing existing graves led to bodies often simply being stacked on top of each other to fit
34055-489: The first to immunize humans against a bacterial disease. His vaccine and inoculation was rather controversial and was rejected by his peers and several investigation commissions but it ended up demonstrating its effectiveness and being recognized for it: out of the 30 thousand people he vaccinated only 54 died. Russian-Jewish bacteriologist Waldemar Haffkine also developed a human cholera vaccine in July 1892. He conducted
34300-480: The first year after being given and 62% in the second year, with minimal side effects. It is available in over 60 countries. However, it is not currently recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for most people traveling from the United States to endemic countries. The vaccine that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends, Vaxchora , is an oral attenuated live vaccine , that
34545-428: The former Royal Train , built 1900–04, of the now-defunct South Eastern and Chatham Railway . These ornately decorated carriages were those destroyed in the 1941 bombing of the London terminus. Unlike the loaned locomotives and passenger carriages, the LNC owned its dedicated hearse vans outright. Despite this, they were always painted in whichever colour scheme was currently in use by the LSWR (SR after 1923), to match
34790-489: The funeral trains were to operate. By this time, Broun and Sprye had lost control of the scheme. On 1 April 1851 a group of trustees led by Poor Law Commissioner William Voules purchased the rights to the scheme from Broun and Sprye for £20,000 (about £2.37 million in terms of 2024 consumer spending power) and, once the act of Parliament had been passed, founded the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Company on their own without regard to their agreement with
35035-420: The genetic mechanisms by which cholera bacteria turn on the protein production of the toxins that interact with host cell mechanisms to pump chloride ions into the small intestine, creating an ionic pressure which prevents sodium ions from entering the cell. The chloride and sodium ions create a salt-water environment in the small intestines, which through osmosis can pull up to six liters of water per day through
35280-462: The genetic structure. Two clusters have been identified: Cluster I and Cluster II. For the most part, Cluster I consists of strains from the 1960s and 1970s, while Cluster II largely contains strains from the 1980s and 1990s, based on the change in the clone structure. This grouping of strains is best seen in the strains from the African continent. In many areas of the world, antibiotic resistance
35525-560: The government as sites for prisons and a lunatic asylum , the LNC struggled to sell the remainder. By the time the ten-year window for land sales expired in 1865, only 346 acres (0.54 sq mi; 1.4 km ) had been sold. With the majority of the surplus lands still unsold, as the ten-year window expired the LNC successfully petitioned for a further five-year extension. The LNC was by this time in serious financial difficulties, and dependent on loans from its own directors to settle outstanding debts. The business had been established on
35770-464: The government sought alternative means to prevent the constantly increasing number of deaths in London from overwhelming the new cemeteries in the same manner in which it had overwhelmed the traditional burial grounds. The new suburban cemeteries had a combined size of just 282 acres (0.44 sq mi; 1.1 km ), and the Board of Health did not consider any of them suitable for long-term use. As
36015-487: The government taking control of an industry previously controlled by religious bodies and private entrepreneurs. The process of decomposition was still poorly understood and it was generally believed that 12 ⁄ 13 (92%) of a decaying corpse is dispersed as gas; local authorities in the vicinity of the proposed new cemeteries were horrified at the prospect of an estimated 3,000,000 cubic feet (85,000 m ) per year of miasma (disease-carrying vapour) spreading from
36260-401: The hands and feet. Dehydration can cause the skin to turn bluish . Symptoms start two hours to five days after exposure. Cholera is caused by a number of types of Vibrio cholerae , with some types producing more severe disease than others. It is spread mostly by unsafe water and unsafe food that has been contaminated with human feces containing the bacteria. Undercooked shellfish
36505-432: The hearse vans for Anglican and half for Nonconformist coffins, to prevent Anglicans from sharing a carriage with Nonconformists, but in practice this arrangement was little used. Unlike traditional Victorian funerals, in which the hearse invariably led the funeral procession, photographic evidence shows that the LNC sometimes placed the hearse van at the rear of the train. (Because trains reversed from Necropolis Junction into
36750-417: The impact of funeral trains on normal traffic and of the secrecy in which negotiations between the LSWR and the cemetery's promoters conducted. The LSWR management pledged that no concessions would be made to the cemetery operators, other than promising them the use of one train each day. Charles Blomfield , Bishop of London was hostile in general to railway funeral schemes, arguing that the noise and speed of
36995-501: The initial Necropolis site and the adjacent reserve site, and a further 200 acres (0.31 sq mi; 0.81 km ) retained their common land rights and could not be developed in any way, rendering them worthless to prospective buyers. While this left 1,300 acres (2.0 sq mi; 5.3 km ) theoretically able to be sold, the Brookwood site had been chosen for its remoteness and there were few prospective buyers. While 214 acres (0.33 sq mi; 0.87 km ) were bought by
37240-420: The intention of creating perpetual greenery with large numbers of flowers and a strong floral scent throughout the cemetery. On 7 November 1854 the new cemetery opened and the southern Anglican section was consecrated by Charles Sumner , Bishop of Winchester . At the time it was the largest cemetery in the world. On 13 November the first scheduled train left the new London Necropolis railway station for
37485-466: The intestinal cells, creating the massive amounts of diarrhea. The host can become rapidly dehydrated unless treated properly. By inserting separate, successive sections of V. cholerae DNA into the DNA of other bacteria, such as E. coli that would not naturally produce the protein toxins, researchers have investigated the mechanisms by which V. cholerae responds to the changing chemical environments of
37730-400: The intestines, and their excessive sugar content may even harm water uptake. If commercially produced oral rehydration solutions are too expensive or difficult to obtain, solutions can be made. One such recipe calls for 1 liter of boiled water, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 6 teaspoons of sugar, and added mashed banana for potassium and to improve taste. As there frequently is initially acidosis ,
37975-421: The land would be far beyond the maximum projected size of the city's growth. The London and South Western Railway (LSWR)—which had connected London to Woking in 1838—would enable bodies and mourners to be shipped from London to the site easily and cheaply. Broun envisaged dedicated coffin trains, each carrying 50–60 bodies, travelling from London to the new Necropolis in the early morning or late at night, and
38220-461: The largest cemetery in the world. As the Brookwood site had been intentionally chosen for its distance from London, at the time of its opening the only practical way to reach the cemetery was by railway. William Cubitt decided the terrain of the initial cemetery site was best suited to a railway branch from the LSWR at the west of the cemetery, and work began on the earthworks and rails for the new branch in early September 1854. The single-track branch
38465-531: The livery of the passenger cars and locomotives loaned to the LNC. As with the carriages for living passengers, the hearse vans were designed to prevent bodies mixing with those from different backgrounds. Each of the original vans was partitioned into twelve sections in two rows of six, each capable of holding one coffin; later vans were of a slightly different design and probably carried 14 coffins. The vans were fitted with internal partitions to divide first, second and third class coffins. The LNC intended to use half
38710-401: The locomotive with water, but following the construction of the water tower in the cemetery this fell to around 40 minutes. An 1854 agreement between the LNC and LSWR gave consent for the LNC to operate two or three funeral trains each day if demand warranted it, but traffic levels never rose to a sufficient level to activate this clause. The train only ran if there was a coffin or passengers at
38955-413: The lower levels of the hearse carriages. On arrival at the stations coffins would usually be unloaded onto a hand-drawn bier and pulled by LNC staff to the appropriate chapel. While this was taking place the mourners were escorted to the waiting rooms at the station. On arrival at the chapels first and second class funerals would generally have a brief service (third class funerals had a single service in
39200-480: The main line at both London and Brookwood. Trains carried coffins and passengers from a dedicated station in Waterloo, London , onto the LSWR tracks. On reaching the cemetery, the trains reversed down a dedicated branch line to two stations in the cemetery, one for the burial of Anglicans and one for Nonconformists (non-Anglicans) or those who did not want a Church of England funeral. The station waiting rooms and
39445-461: The main line, each incorporating a chapel, to serve each religion's section. The new consulting engineer to the company, William Cubitt , rejected this idea and recommended a single site to the south of the railway line, served by a private branch line through the cemetery. The company also considered Broun's plan for dedicated coffin trains unrealistic, arguing that relatives would not want the coffins to be shipped separately. Internal disputes within
39690-414: The mausoleum he had commissioned at Brookwood. This building, the largest mausoleum in the cemetery, was bought by the LNC, fitted with shelves and niches to hold urns, and used as a dedicated columbarium from then on. In December 1887 the LNC appointed Cyril Tubbs to supervise the LNC estate. Tubbs was given a broad remit to "advance the company's interests", including buying and selling land, supervising
39935-463: The metropolitan mortality of a mighty nation; a last home and bed of rest where the ashes of the high and low, the mighty and the weak, the learned and the ignorant, the wicked and the good, the idle and the industrious, in one vast co-mingled heap may repose together. While the negotiations over the state taking control of burials were ongoing, an alternative proposal was being drawn up by Richard Broun and Richard Sprye. Broun and Sprye intended to use
40180-535: The mid 17th century the city was running seriously short of burial space. A proposal by Christopher Wren to use the reconstruction following the 1666 Great Fire of London as an opportunity to cease burials in the churchyards and establish new cemeteries outside the city was approved by the King and Parliament but vetoed by the Corporation of London , and burials continued at the newly rebuilt churches. In
40425-440: The mid-19th century—the railways, the sewer system and from the 1860s the precursors to the London Underground —often necessitated the demolition of existing churchyards. The first major relocation took place in 1862, when the construction of Charing Cross railway station and the railway lines into it necessitated the demolition of the burial ground of Cure's College in Southwark . Around 5,000 cubic yards (3,800 m) of earth
40670-442: The mismanagement of the company recommended the expulsion of the four remaining trustees and the reform of the company under a new board of directors. This was unanimously approved by the shareholders, and work finally began on the scheme. A 2,200-acre (3.4 sq mi; 8.9 km ) tract of land stretching from Woking to Brookwood was purchased from Lord Onslow. The westernmost 400 acres (0.62 sq mi; 1.6 km ), at
40915-505: The mortality rate is less than 1%; however, with untreated cholera, the mortality rate rises to 50–60%. For certain genetic strains of cholera, such as the one present during the 2010 epidemic in Haiti and the 2004 outbreak in India, death can occur within two hours of becoming ill. Cholera affects an estimated 2.8 million people worldwide, and causes approximately 95,000 deaths
41160-448: The multiplying new generations of V. cholerae bacteria out into the drinking water of the next host if proper sanitation measures are not in place. The cholera toxin (CTX or CT) is an oligomeric complex made up of six protein subunits : a single copy of the A subunit (part A), and five copies of the B subunit (part B), connected by a disulfide bond . The five B subunits form a five-membered ring that binds to GM1 gangliosides on
41405-400: The mutation (who are not affected by cystic fibrosis) are more resistant to V. cholerae infections. In this model, the genetic deficiency in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator channel proteins interferes with bacteria binding to the intestinal epithelium , thus reducing the effects of an infection. When consumed, most bacteria do not survive the acidic conditions of
41650-552: The names of the deceased being carried on the train would be called in turn, and that person's mourners would board the train. At the time the service was inaugurated, the LNC's trains were divided both by class and by religion, with separate Anglican and Nonconformist sections of the train. This distinction applied to both living and deceased passengers. Intended to prevent persons from different social background from mixing and potentially distressing mourners and to prevent bodies of persons from different social classes being carried in
41895-490: The new Necropolis in the early morning or late at night, and the coffins being stored on the cemetery site until the time of the funeral. Mourners would then be carried to the appropriate part of the cemetery by a dedicated passenger train during the day. Broun calculated that a 1,500-acre (2.3 sq mi; 6.1 km ) site would accommodate a total of 5,830,500 individual graves in a single layer. The legislation authorising Brookwood Cemetery did not permit mass graves at
42140-466: The new cemetery to the city. Financial mismanagement and internal disputes led to delays in the project. By the time Brookwood Cemetery opened in late 1854, a number of other cemeteries had opened nearer to London or were in the process of opening. While some parishes in London did arrange for the LNC to handle the burials of their dead, many preferred to use nearer cemeteries. The LNC had anticipated handling between 10,000 and 50,000 burials per year, but
42385-587: The night and the Cemetery Company made arrangements for them. Each body has cost us less than three shillings. It was fortunate that such reasonable terms could be made at Woking Cemetery. A more horrible business you can scarcely imagine; the men could only continue their work by the constant sprinkling of disinfectant powder. Mine was no easy task for the Bishop, the Warden, the parishioners and particularly
42630-413: The northern (London-bound) track of the LSWR. The new branch ran east downhill from Necropolis Junction. After passing through white gates marking the cemetery boundary, it curved south into the northern, Nonconformist section, the site of North station ( 51°18′10″N 0°37′58″W / 51.30281°N 0.63264°W / 51.30281; -0.63264 ). The line straightened and ran southeast over
42875-404: The northern (i.e. non-cemetery) side of the new station. As the corpses brought to either of the reception-houses by the funeral tender are now taken each one its separate way, followed by its mourning-group, and by paths where privacy is unbroken, and none but soothing and religious influences around,—when amidst this scene, the clergyman or minister, unharassed by other duties, reads reverently
43120-449: The number never rose above 4,100 per year, and in its first 150 years of operations only 231,730 burials had been conducted. Buying the land for Brookwood Cemetery and building the cemetery and railway had been very expensive, and by the time the cemetery opened the LNC was already on the verge of bankruptcy. The LNC remained solvent by selling surplus parts of its land, but as the land had been chosen for its remoteness, sales were low. From
43365-439: The opening of Woking Crematorium in 1885, as rival undertakers were not given access to the LNC's cheap trains and had to pay the LSWR's cargo rate (24 shillings in 1885) to ship a coffin to Brookwood or Woking stations for transfer to the crematorium. In its last two years of operation, wartime rises in costs made the fixed fare structure untenable, and between July 1939 and January 1941 there were five slight adjustments to
43610-479: The original LNC terminus. The two stations in the cemetery were very similar in design. North station served the Nonconformist section of the cemetery, and South station served the Anglican section. On William Cubitt's advice the two stations in the cemetery were built as temporary structures, in the expectation that they would need to be rebuilt once the railway was operational and the issues with operating
43855-435: The original promoters. These trustees proved inept, wasting large sums of money; meanwhile Richard Broun lobbied vigorously against the "misrepresentations and ambiguous assertions" of the new trustees. With financiers sceptical of the scheme's viability Voules and his trustees were unable to raise the funds to buy the proposed site from Lord Onslow. In early 1853, amid widespread allegations of voting irregularities and with
44100-432: The practice of mourners planting flowers and shrubs around graves, which was in turn used by the LNC in their promotional material to promote Brookwood as a "Garden of Sleep". In around 1904 the masonry works was expanded and equipped with a siding from the railway branch line, allowing the LNC to sell its gravestones and funerary art to cemeteries nationwide. Cholera Cholera ( / ˈ k ɒ l ər ə / )
44345-425: The prayers for the dead,—when all which is this taking place tends to raise the dignity and self-respect of human nature, and create a sublime ideal of the great mystery of the grave, we perceive by contrast, more and more, what the evils of city and suburban burials have been, and what an educative process lies within even this portional one of their reformation ... Hither the wealthy and respectable are removing
44590-658: The problem concluded that London's burial grounds had become so overcrowded that it was impossible to dig a new grave without cutting through an existing one. Commissioner and sanitation campaigner Edwin Chadwick testified that each year, 20,000 adults and 30,000 children were being buried in less than 218 acres (0.34 sq mi; 0.88 km ) of already full burial grounds; the commission heard that one cemetery, Spa Fields in Clerkenwell , designed to hold 1,000 bodies, contained 80,000 graves, and that gravediggers throughout London were obliged to shred bodies in order to cram
44835-422: The procession would come directly to the terminus. On arrival at the terminus the mourners would be led either to one of the dedicated first class waiting rooms (for first and second class funerals) or to the communal third class waiting room. The coffin would be discreetly unloaded from the hearse and sent to the platform level by lift. Those attending first and second class funerals would be permitted to watch
45080-423: The prohibition of mass graves it would take over 350 years to fill a single layer of the cemetery. Although the Brookwood site was a long distance from London, Broun and Sprye argued that the railway made it both quicker and cheaper to reach than the seven existing cemeteries, all of which required a slow and expensive horse-drawn hearse to carry the body and mourners from London to the burial site. Shareholders in
45325-480: The promoters of the Brookwood scheme were given parliamentary consent to proceed by the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Act 1852 ( 15 & 16 Vict. c. cxlix), and the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company (LNC) was formed. The former Woking Common near Brookwood, owned by the Earl of Onslow , was chosen as the site for the new cemetery. To prevent the LSWR from exploiting its monopoly on access to
45570-439: The proposal. Drummond considered the scheme a front for land speculation, believing that the promoters only intended to use 400 acres (0.63 sq mi; 1.6 km ) for the cemetery and to develop the remaining 80% for building; Mangles felt that the people of Woking were not being fairly compensated for the loss of their historic rights to use the common lands; Ashley felt that the Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 had been
45815-520: The railway line was left open, and wings extended from the building along the platform on each side. Other than the brick platform faces, chimneys and foundations, the stations were built entirely of wood. Each station held first class and ordinary reception rooms for mourners, a first class and an ordinary refreshment room, and a set of apartments for LNC staff. The refreshment rooms at both stations were licensed (permitted to sell alcohol). The train crews would generally wait in these refreshment rooms until
46060-403: The railway stations, advertising the cemetery and liaising with the LSWR. Tubbs set about restructuring the design of Brookwood Cemetery to make it more appealing to mourners and visitors. The cemetery was divided into numbered sections, separated by an expanded network of avenues. These avenues were all named, and signposts were erected along them, to allow visitors easily to find their way around
46305-470: The railway's closure. In 1929 a section of the LNC's land at Brookwood was set aside as Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial , the sole burial ground in Britain for US military casualties of the First World War . As most US casualties had occurred in continental Europe and been buried there, the number interred at Brookwood was small, with a total of 468 servicemen buried in the cemetery. After
46550-452: The railways was incompatible with the solemnity of the Christian burial service. Blomfield also considered it inappropriate that the families of people from very different backgrounds would potentially have to share a train, and felt that it demeaned the dignity of the deceased for the bodies of respectable members of the community to be carried on a train also carrying the bodies and relatives of those who had led immoral lives. On 30 June 1852
46795-512: The recently invented technology of the railway provided the ability to conduct burials far from populated areas, mitigating concerns over public health risks from living near burial sites. Accordingly, the company bought a large tract of land in Brookwood, Surrey , around 25 miles (40 km) from London, and converted a portion of it into Brookwood Cemetery . A dedicated railway line, the London Necropolis Railway , linked
47040-425: The refreshment kiosk in the station building from 1948 to 1956 and lived in the station apartment, the building was abandoned. It was demolished in the 1960s owing to dry rot . The design of South station was broadly similar to that of North station. Unlike the platform steps of North station, the platform of South station had a ramp leading to an Anglican chapel at the northern end of the platform. A shed adjacent to
47285-469: The relatives have watched the steps taken, and the interviews with people and the correspondence has been great but all are more satisfied than could be expected. As well as taking over new burials from London's now-closed burial grounds, the LNC also envisaged the physical relocation of the existing burial grounds to their Necropolis, to provide a final solution to the problems caused by burials in built-up areas. The massive London civil engineering projects of
47530-404: The relocation of the London terminus, two new hearse vans were given to the LNC by the LSWR in 1899. These new hearse vans were longer, and divided into three levels with compartments for eight coffins on each, for a total of 24 coffins per van. These replaced the existing hearse vans and remained in use until the closure of the Necropolis Railway. One of the vans was destroyed in the 1941 bombing of
47775-404: The remains into available grave space. In 1848–49 a cholera epidemic killed 14,601 people in London and overwhelmed the burial system completely. Bodies were left stacked in heaps awaiting burial, and even relatively recent graves were exhumed to make way for new burials. In the wake of public concerns following the cholera epidemic and the findings of the royal commission, the Burial Act 1852
48020-475: The remains of relatives from the graves and vaults of the metropolis, and hither the Nonconformists are bringing the long-interred dead from even the once-sacred place of Bunhill Fields ... but it is a law that moral and social advantages permeate as surely down through the strata of society as water finds its level. In spite of little knowledge, in spite of ignorant opposition from those interested in
48265-511: The right to erect a permanent memorial on the site. (The families of those buried could pay afterwards to upgrade a third-class grave to a higher class if they later wanted to erect a memorial, but this practice was rare.) At the time the service was inaugurated, the LNC's trains were divided both by class and by religion, with separate Anglican and Nonconformist sections and separate first, second and third class compartments within each. This separation applied to both living and dead passengers. This
48510-405: The right to re-use the grave in future. Third class funerals were reserved for pauper funerals; those buried at parish expense in the section designated for that parish. Although the LNC was forbidden from using mass graves (other than the burial of next of kin in the same grave) and thus even the lowest class of funeral provided a separate grave for the deceased, third class funerals were not granted
48755-399: The risk assessment for potential cholera outbreaks. Understanding the seasonality and location of outbreaks provides guidance for improving cholera control activities for the most vulnerable. For prevention to be effective, it is important that cases be reported to national health authorities. Spanish physician Jaume Ferran i Clua developed the first successful cholera inoculation in 1885,
49000-404: The river. The arches of the huge brick viaduct carrying the LSWR into Waterloo Bridge station (now London Waterloo station) were easily converted into mortuaries. Broun also felt that the journey out of London from Waterloo Bridge would be less distressing for mourners; while most of the rail routes out of London ran through tunnels and deep cuttings or through densely populated areas, at this time
49245-433: The run-around loop to move to the other end of the train and pull it back to London. Between 1898 and 1904 the LSWR line through Brookwood was increased from two to four tracks; a thin slice of the northernmost part of the cemetery was ceded to the LSWR to allow the widening of the line. Brookwood station was rebuilt, and a new junction to the west of the station allowed trains to pass between the cemetery branch and all four of
49490-476: The same compartment rather than to provide different facilities, the carriages intended for all classes and religions were very similar in design, and the primary difference was different ornamentation on the compartment doors. At 11.35 am (11.20 am on Sundays) the train would leave London for Brookwood, arriving at Necropolis Junction at 12.25 pm (12.20 pm on Sundays). On arrival at North or South station coffins would usually be unloaded onto
49735-621: The site in which they had been buried was divided into cemeteries for the Free French forces and Italian prisoners of war. Under the terms of the 1852 agreement and Act of Parliament establishing the London Necropolis Company, the LSWR (after 1923 the SR) provided the locomotives and crew for London Necropolis Railway operations. There was no dedicated LNC locomotive, the trains being worked by any suitable locomotive. (Before
49980-410: The site of present-day Thamesmead ) was to become a single burial ground for east London. All bodies would be shipped by river and canal to the new cemeteries, bringing an end to burials in London itself. The Treasury was sceptical that Chadwick's scheme would ever be financially viable. It also met with widespread public concerns about the impact of monopoly control of the burial industry, and about
50225-414: The site, and burials were restricted to one family per grave. If the practice of only burying a single family in each grave were abandoned and the traditional practice for pauper burials of ten burials per grave were adopted, the site was capable of accommodating 28,500,000 bodies. Assuming 50,000 deaths per year and presuming that families would often choose to share a grave, Broun calculated that even with
50470-424: The speed of the railway made it both quicker and cheaper to reach than the seven existing cemeteries, all of which required a slow and expensive horse-drawn hearse to carry the body and mourners from London to the burial site. Shareholders in the LSWR were concerned at the impact the cemetery scheme would have on the normal operations of the railway. At a shareholders' meeting in August 1852 concerns were raised about
50715-422: The sprawling Brookwood site, and to locate particular graves; the naming and numbering system devised by Tubbs has remained in use ever since. Tubbs established a masonry works and showroom near the centre of the cemetery, allowing the LNC to provide grave markers without the difficulty of shipping them from London, and opened a LNC-owned nursery in the grounds for the sale of plants and wreaths. This increased
50960-406: The spread of cholera. They also stress the importance of an effective surveillance system. Governments can play a role in all of these areas. Although cholera may be life-threatening, prevention of the disease is normally straightforward if proper sanitation practices are followed. In developed countries , due to their nearly universal advanced water treatment and sanitation practices, cholera
51205-399: The squalid and congested London burial grounds and the newer suburban cemeteries which were already becoming crowded. The LNC aimed to create an atmosphere of perpetual spring in the cemetery, and chose the plants for the cemetery accordingly. It had already been noted that evergreen plants from North America thrived in the local soil. Robert Donald, the owner of an arboretum near Woking,
51450-409: The station abutted the arches of the LSWR's viaduct, it acted as an obstacle to any increase in the number of lines serving Waterloo station (renamed from Waterloo Bridge station in 1886). Urban growth in the area of what is now south west London, through which trains from Waterloo ran, led to congestion at the station and in 1896 the LSWR formally presented the LNC with a proposal to provide the LNC with
51695-441: The station apartment until the 1950s. By this time the railway itself had closed but the station's refreshment kiosk remained open. Steps led from the 210-foot (64 m) long platform to a path leading to a chapel, on a hilltop behind the station. Between 1942 and 1944 large numbers of Allied service personnel were buried in the military section of Brookwood cemetery. On the authority of Thomas B. Larkin , Quartermaster General of
51940-462: The station held hand-drawn biers, used to transport coffins around the large southern cemetery. At the time the branch line opened the platform of South station was only 128 feet (39 m) long, far shorter than the 210-foot (64 m) platform of North station. At some point the platform was greatly extended south from the station building to a total length of 256 feet (78 m), allowing equipment to be unloaded discreetly without disturbing users of
52185-417: The station was built a run-around loop was added at Necropolis Junction, allowing locomotives to reposition themselves from the front to the rear of the train. From then on, on arrival at Necropolis Junction from London the locomotive would push the train into the cemetery from the rear, under the close supervision of LNC staff. This left the locomotive positioned to pull the train out, after which it would use
52430-484: The station. London Necropolis Company The London Necropolis Company ( LNC ), formally the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Company until 1927, was a cemetery operator established by Act of Parliament in 1852 in reaction to the crisis caused by the closure of London 's graveyards in 1851. The LNC intended to establish a single cemetery large enough to accommodate all of London's future burials in perpetuity. The company's founders recognised that
52675-646: The stomach, mucous layers, and intestinal wall. Researchers have discovered a complex cascade of regulatory proteins controls expression of V. cholerae virulence determinants. In responding to the chemical environment at the intestinal wall, the V. cholerae bacteria produce the TcpP/TcpH proteins, which, together with the ToxR/ToxS proteins, activate the expression of the ToxT regulatory protein. ToxT then directly activates expression of virulence genes that produce
52920-504: The storage of cremated remains) within the cemetery, with the ultimate goal of taking over all funeral arrangements for the Cremation Society. The Cremation Society were keen to prevent a competitor to Woking Crematorium, and sought to cooperate with the LNC. The fares for the transport of mourners and coffins on the London Necropolis Railway had been fixed by Parliament in 1852 at 6s for a living first class passenger and £1 for
53165-613: The surface of the intestinal epithelium cells. The A1 portion of the A subunit is an enzyme that ADP-ribosylates G proteins , while the A2 chain fits into the central pore of the B subunit ring. Upon binding, the complex is taken into the cell via receptor-mediated endocytosis . Once inside the cell, the disulfide bond is reduced, and the A1 subunit is freed to bind with a human partner protein called ADP-ribosylation factor 6 (Arf6). Binding exposes its active site, allowing it to permanently ribosylate
53410-411: The surviving station platform and the former station chapels. London's dead had traditionally been buried in and around local churches, and with a limited amount of space for burials, the oldest graves were regularly exhumed to free space for new burials. In the first half of the 19th century, the population of London more than doubled, from a little under a million people in 1801 to almost two and
53655-482: The time Brookwood Cemetery opened in November 1854 the LNC was on the verge of bankruptcy. Recognising their financial predicament, the LNC lobbied Parliament for a new Act of Parliament to allow the venture to survive. On 23 July 1855 the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Amendment Act 1855 received Royal Assent. This Act released the LNC from those compulsory purchases of land which had been mandated by
53900-410: The toxins, causing diarrhea in the infected person and allowing the bacteria to colonize the intestine. Current research aims at discovering "the signal that makes the cholera bacteria stop swimming and start to colonize (that is, adhere to the cells of) the small intestine." Amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprinting of the pandemic isolates of V. cholerae has revealed variation in
54145-441: The traditional practice for pauper burials of ten burials per grave were adopted, the site was capable of accommodating 28,500,000 bodies. Assuming 50,000 deaths per year and presuming that families would often choose to share a grave, Broun calculated that even with the prohibition of mass graves it would take over 350 years to fill a single layer. Although the Brookwood site was a long distance from London, Broun and Sprye argued that
54390-407: The trains also sometimes stopped at Vauxhall and Clapham Junction for the benefit of mourners from south west London who did not want to travel via Waterloo, but these intermediate stops were discontinued and never reinstated. After 1 October 1900 the Sunday trains were discontinued, and from 1902 the daily train service was ended and trains ran only as required. The Act of Parliament establishing
54635-404: The trains were ready to return to London, and on at least one occasion (on 12 January 1867) the driver became so drunk that the fireman had to drive the train back to London. This incident prompted a complaint from the LSWR and from that time the LNC provided the train crew with a free lunch, provided they drank no more than one pint of beer. In mid-1855 cellars were dug beneath the stations, and
54880-428: The urban development of what is now south London had not taken place and the LSWR route ran almost entirely through parkland and countryside. In March 1854 the LNC purchased a plot of land between Westminster Bridge Road and York Street (now Leake Street). Architect William Tite and engineer William Cubitt drew up a design for a station, which was approved in June 1854 and completed in October of that year. As
55125-516: The viability of the scheme had led to only 15,000 of the 25,000 LNC shares being sold, severely limiting the company's working capital and forcing it to take out large loans. Buying the land from Lord Onslow, compensating local residents for the loss of rights over Woking Common, draining and landscaping the portion to be used for the initial cemetery, and building the railway lines and stations were all expensive undertakings. With far fewer burial contracts with London parishes than had been anticipated, by
55370-451: The world. Recent major outbreaks are the 2010s Haiti cholera outbreak and the 2016–2022 Yemen cholera outbreak . In October 2016, an outbreak of cholera began in war-ravaged Yemen . WHO called it "the worst cholera outbreak in the world". In 2019, 93% of the reported 923,037 cholera cases were from Yemen (with 1911 deaths reported). Between September 2019 and September 2020, a global total of over 450,000 cases and over 900 deaths
55615-432: The world. On 13 November the first scheduled train left the new London Necropolis railway station for the cemetery, and the first burial (that of the stillborn twins of a Mr and Mrs Hore of Ewer Street, Borough ) took place. William Cubitt decided that the terrain of the initial site was best suited to a railway branch at the west side. Work began on the earthworks and rails in early September 1854. The single-track branch
55860-421: Was 17 carriages long. The mourners included the 21-year-old Mohandas Gandhi , who recollected witnessing a loud argument between "a champion atheist" and a clergyman at North station while waiting for the return train. The return trains to London generally left South station at 2.15 pm and Necropolis Junction at 2.30 pm; the return journey initially took around an hour owing to the need to stop to refill
56105-415: Was abandoned in 1852. An alternative proposal was drawn up by Sir Richard Broun and Richard Sprye , who planned to use the emerging technology of mechanised transport to resolve the crisis. The scheme entailed buying a single very large tract of land around 23 miles (37 km) from London in Brookwood near Woking , Surrey , to be called Brookwood Cemetery or the London Necropolis. At this distance,
56350-415: Was completed in time for the opening two months later. The junction with the LSWR, known as Necropolis Junction, was west-facing, meaning that trains to and from London were obliged to reverse in and out of the branch to the two stations in the cemetery. The poor quality gravel soil, which had been the initial reason for the site's cheapness and its selection as the site for the cemetery, was poorly suited as
56595-449: Was contracted to supply the trees and shrubs for the cemetery. The railway line through the cemetery and the major roads and paths within the cemetery were lined with giant sequoia trees, the first significant planting of these trees (only introduced to Europe in 1853) in Britain. As well as the giant sequoias, the grounds were heavily planted with magnolia , rhododendron , coastal redwood , azalea , andromeda and monkeypuzzle , with
56840-418: Was different ornamentation on the compartment doors. At 11.35 am (11.20 am on Sundays) the train would leave London for Brookwood, arriving at Necropolis Junction at 12.25 pm (12.20 pm on Sundays). The LNC's trains were capable of transporting large numbers of mourners when required; the funeral of businessman Sir Nowroji Saklatwala on 25 July 1938 saw 155 mourners travelling first class on
57085-458: Was displaced, uncovering at least 7,950 bodies. These were packed into 220 large containers, each containing 26 adults plus children, and shipped on the London Necropolis Railway to Brookwood for reburial, along with at least some of the existing headstones from the cemetery, at a cost of around 3 shillings per body. At least 21 London burial grounds were relocated to Brookwood via the railway, along with numerous others relocated by road following
57330-408: Was expected by the LNC that those using first class graves would erect a permanent memorial of some kind in due course following the funeral. Second class funerals cost £1 (about £119 in 2024 terms) and allowed some control over the burial location. The right to erect a permanent memorial cost an additional 10 shillings (about £59 in 2024 terms); if a permanent memorial was not erected the LNC reserved
57575-402: Was generally shaped by the miasma theory (the belief that airborne particles were the primary factor in the spread of contagious disease), and the bad smells and risks of disease caused by piled bodies and exhumed rotting corpses caused great public concern. A Royal Commission established in 1842 to investigate the problem concluded that London's burial grounds had become so overcrowded that it
57820-487: Was impossible to dig a new grave without cutting through an existing one. In 1848–49, a cholera epidemic killed 14,601 people in London and overwhelmed the burial system completely. Bodies were left stacked in heaps awaiting burial, and even relatively recent graves were exhumed to make way for new burials. In the wake of public concerns following the cholera epidemics and the findings of the Royal Commission,
58065-536: Was only a single third or second class coffin to be carried, and in these cases the coffin and funeral party would be held until the next service. Generally the trains ran direct from London to the cemetery, other than occasional stops to take on water. Between 1890 and 1910 the trains also sometimes stopped at Vauxhall and Clapham Junction for the benefit of mourners from south west London who did not want to travel via Waterloo, but these intermediate stops were discontinued and never reinstated. After 1 October 1900
58310-490: Was passed, giving the Brookwood scheme parliamentary consent to proceed. The former Woking Common at Brookwood, owned by the Earl of Onslow , was chosen as the site for the new cemetery. To prevent the LSWR from exploiting its monopoly on access to the cemetery, the act of Parliament authorising the scheme bound the LSWR to carry corpses and mourners to the cemetery in perpetuity and set a maximum tariff which could be levied on funeral traffic, but did not specify details of how
58555-551: Was passed. Under the Burial Act, new burials were prohibited in what were then the built-up areas of London. Seven large cemeteries had recently opened a short distance from London or were in the process of opening, and temporarily became London's main burial grounds. A proposal by Francis Seymour Haden to ship the bodies of London's dead to the Thames Estuary for use in land reclamation met with little approval, and
58800-414: Was purchased from Lord Onslow. The westernmost 400 acres (0.62 sq mi; 1.6 km), at the Brookwood end, were designated the initial cemetery site, and a branch railway line was built from the main line into this section. On 7 November 1854 the new cemetery opened and the southern Anglican section was consecrated by Charles Sumner , Bishop of Winchester . At the time it was the largest cemetery in
59045-424: Was ready for the opening two months later, at a construction cost of £1419 17 s 6 d (about £161,000 in terms of 2024 consumer spending power). The junction with the LSWR, known as Necropolis Junction, was west-facing, meaning that trains to and from London were obliged to reverse in and out of the branch. No run-around loop was provided, but a single crossover allowed trains from the branch to reverse onto
59290-629: Was reported; however, the accuracy of these numbers suffer from over-reporting from countries that report suspected cases (and not laboratory confirmed cases), as well as under-reporting from countries that do not report official cases (such as Bangladesh, India and Philippines). Although much is known about the mechanisms behind the spread of cholera, researchers still do not have a full understanding of what makes cholera outbreaks happen in some places and not others. Lack of treatment of human feces and lack of treatment of drinking water greatly facilitate its spread. Bodies of water have been found to serve as
59535-440: Was the first recorded incidence of epidemiological tracking. The primary symptoms of cholera are profuse diarrhea and vomiting of clear fluid. These symptoms usually start suddenly, half a day to five days after ingestion of the bacteria. The diarrhea is frequently described as "rice water" in nature and may have a fishy odor. An untreated person with cholera may produce 10 to 20 litres (3 to 5 US gal) of diarrhea
59780-512: Was the first station on the branch. At the time the cemetery opened North station incorporated the lodgings of James Bailey, superintendent of the Nonconformist cemetery. In 1861 Bailey became the sole cemetery superintendent and moved into a cottage elsewhere on the grounds, and his apartment was given to Richard Lee, a cemetery porter. Census records show Lee living at North station, until 1865 with his mother Ann and later with his wife Charlotte, until at least 1871. A number of cemetery staff lived in
60025-404: Was to prevent persons from different social background from mixing and potentially distressing mourners and to prevent bodies of persons from different social classes being carried in the same compartment, rather than to provide different levels of facilities for different types of mourner; the compartments intended for all classes and religions were very similar in design, and the primary difference
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