London Necropolis Railway

I’m always astonished at London’s secret past.  Last Thursday I discovered the terminus of the former London Necropolis Railway at Waterloo. Opened in 1854, it offered a solution to overcrowding in London's existing graveyards, providing transport for coffins and mourners to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. The building was specifically designed with private waiting rooms which could be used to hold funeral services, and a hydraulic lift to raise coffins to platform level from the railway arches where bodies were stored before their final journey. It closed in 1941 after a bombing raid but remains an incredible insight into social history