"The Necropolitan." ...well who else could come up with that? Nice one, Jago. Have had a morbid curiosity with this line for years. DownUnder here in Melbourne, our Victoria Market is built over the original city cemetery. A carpark now covers the less wealthy stiffs whose descendants didn't have the means to relocate them to the now overcrowded General Cemetery... 👻
Once the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton and suburban cemeteries were nearly full, the Springvale cemetery was built with its own branch off the Gippsland main line. At the end of the branch there was a special station for mourners. The Fawkner cemetery was also strategically placed surrounding the railway extending north from Coburg. So while Melbourne is only 2/3 the size of London, it also had a couple of similar stations.
The Necropolis and its railway have been covered several times on TV, including one of Michael Portillo's jaunts, but Jago managed to pack in a lot more information and some beautiful photography. Well worth watching even if you've seen previous coverage.
It wasn't the cough that carried him off, it was the coffin they carried him off in. I thought that the necropolis was the dead centre of London but now I know better - thank you Jago
"Return fares weren't available." I, for one, am very relieved about that. But by far the best smileworthy comment was "The Necropolitan". Fine form, Mr. Hazzard. Fine form, indeed.
Interestingly there was a somewhat similar railway in Berlin although it was built a bit later (finally opened in 1913 after first plans/proposals were already made in 1872 ...) It´s called the "Friedhofsbahn" (literally: cemetary railway) which ultimately lasted until august 1961 when the "Berlin Wall" was erected. The line end (Stahnsdorf station) was on GDR territory and became inaccessible for anyone (dead or alive) from West-Berlin. Btw.: Abandoned parts of the track still exist to date ...
Read once somewhere that Brookwood was especially popular (so to speak) with actors, musicians, and stagehands, since it was one of a very few cemeteries in London that performed burials on Sundays - some Music Hall type performers would do as many as two-three shows a day, six days a week, and Sunday would have been their only day off because theatres were closed on Sundays. And so there's a fairly large contingent of the 19th-century London stage that ended up there.
Good Lord, can you imagine how massive a nationwide cemetery for the whole of Britain would have been had that come to pass? A vast landscape of greenery under a heavenly sky, with gravestones and monuments stretching as far as the eye could see, the monotony occasionally broken by little chapels. That would have been an incredible sight.
My first thought when Jago mentioned it was that it would be a massive sod to get to for almost anyone wanting to visit a grave, which is surely the main point in having actual marked graves for the dead. (Leaving aside religious arguments, which I don't know anything about.)
there would only be few places in the entire country where you could build it,would have to be on ground useless for farming and far away from any cities urban growth area
If you happen to find yourself at Brookwood station, if you leave the southbound platform down the stairs and turn right at the bottom of those stairs, you will leave the station into the cemetery and there is a section of the old necropolis track with information about it.
In the US a number of streetcar and interurban companies had specialized funeral car to run the departed and mourners to cemeteries on the line. J.G.Brills 1910 catalogue shows many styles, from 4 wheel trailers to very large cars with provision for two coffins. There is one car surviving that I know of: Descanso at the Southern California Railway Museum(formerly Orange Empire).
I have seen many many videos on this subject and this is one of the best. Apart from Jago’s slightly cynical commentary which I love, I am always impressed with the research he does and getting the level of detail right. I did not know that the remaining entrance was not the original one for example.
Fascinating! One of my fave creepy London stories. About 15 years ago, myself and a mate went to explore the station near Waterloo, we managed to get round the back where the morgue has been turned into a storage firm, the blokes running it gave us a tour of the huge areas where the coffins would have been stacked. So interesting! Happy Halloween 👻
The Kings Cross fire, I came out of the station 10 minutes before the fire engines began to arrive. One theory for how it started was a still smouldering cigarette butt was dropped on to the escalator, which then found its was on to pile of flammable debris which had accumulated underneath. The rest. as they say, was history. London Transport then banned smoking on the Underground to prevent a repeation of the disaster
many years ago,that 109 westminster bridge road used to be a post office,and i used to drive in to there ,push the button for the turn-table to turn the p.o. van round,and if you looked up could see all the old stuff up there.
When the PRR Broadway Limited & NYC Twentieth Century Limited used to race each other east of Englewood, one of them would win. But when the funeral trains raced, they were always tied in a… dead heat.
A morbidly fascinating subject, Jago; one I'm a bit surprised you hadn't covered until now. 7:30 Ah, now there's a name that jumps right out at me. One of Drummond's most famous locomotive designs (the Caledonian Railway Single No.123; now preserved at Glasgow's Riverside Muesum as one of only 3 surviving CR locomotives) was a noted player in the 1888 'Race to the North'. He was also a expert witness to the Tay Bridge disaster (one of his engines was due to take the train that fell with the bridge, but it had broken down and had to be replaced by one designed by Thomas Wheatley; this engine was recovered, repaired and returned to service and thereafter was known by engine crews as 'The Diver') in 1880.
The Scottish trains that ran on Sundays back then were generally so disreputable that some passengers might have been impressed to see 224, an impressive 4-4-0 at the head of the train. She was the Dundee relief that day, taking the place of an 0-4-2 tank engine called 'Ladybank', which, as you correctly state, was designed by Drummond.
Great stuff as always, sir. Used to live in Woking and worked at the Sainsburys in Brookwood/Knaphill, funnily enough built on top of the old loony bin you mentioned. Some buildings were saved and turned into houses and flats and you can clearly tell as they have huge windows.
Baltimore had a streetcar connection to one its cemeteries,and a couple of Interurbans ran cemetery trains out of Chicago,plus the Elevated Company had a converted car for that use! Later made into a medical car! Something you didn't see every day,or night either! Thanks for another interesting video,Jago 😀!!
A great video! Honorary mention of Queen Victoria’s last journey: in February 1901 her body travelled from the Isle of Wight to Windsor by train. Curiously, her coffin arrived to Waterloo and then the procession followed to Paddington from where the journey to Windsor commenced - despite the direct railway link from Waterloo to Windsor. This was probably arranged to allow the funeral procession in London.
I wasn't aware of this railway until I read "The Necropolis Railway" by Andrew Martin. Since then I've researched various sources and been none the wiser.., and then your video comes along and explains it all perfectly. Very well done sir!!
You might be interested to know that there used to be a similar service - le Tramway de Loyasse - that went up to the Loyasse cemetery on the Fourvière Hill in the centre of the French city of Lyon. The viaduct is still there and it's now a footbridge.
That tower cemetery idea at 1:42 reminded me of the cemetery I visited in Hong Kong with a Chinese family who were paying their respects to passed-on relatives. It was on a series of ridges or steppes,one directly after another,on a hillside,with a strip of ground for groups of people to move along in front of a long line of graves side-by-side on each one. Such an arragement was necessary because of the lack of available land space,and its sheer cost,there. I was also with them on viewings of a few high rise apartments as they were considering buying one (one was on about the 60th floor). As none of those came cheap,and neither does the cost of buying or renting a burial plot,the Chinese chap who brought me with him there told me that "the most expensive things to do in Hong Kong are to live and to die".
Please do cover the other service as it is hardly known about. I thought you were very restrained with the punnage. Well done covering a touchy subject so well.
Sydney's Central Railway Station (the terminus for country trains as well as being on many suburban lines) was built on the site of a cemetery. Most remains were reburied elsewhere, but some were recently found (and identified) during work to expand the station. You may be interested to research that. Also there's a beautiful old building nearby called Mortuary Station which had a similar story to this video but in Sydney's case connected to Rookwood, not Brookwood
I have been to Central many times when visiting Australia and Sydney. This new discovery was reported in the uk media a few days ago. I hope Australia returns to normal one day to enable another visit. Thanks for the info and it would make an interesting video if Jago did do a historical video on this.
The Sydney Mortuary Station is also known as Regent Street. A mirror image copy of it was built at the Rookwood Cemetery end. When the line was closed in 1948, the Rookwood Cemetery Station No.1 was dismantled and transported stone by stone to Canberra, where it's now All Saints Church.
@@andrewgwilliam4831 You won't recognise it if you go back. Big $s being spent on construction of a new Central Walk under the suburban platforms, new concourse for the Metro and a new roof and open concourse over platforms 8-15
Over the years I've seen so many videos on the Necropolis railway and this video still is fresh. Well done Mr Hazzard. Is that a coffee cup? Please take your Hazzardous waste when disembarking. I just thought of that!
For many years of commuting into Waterloo and having to wait for our train to be allowed onto its platform, I used to look at that junction, just out of Waterloo station and wonder what it was for/ why it was there. I only heard about the Necropolis line more recently. Thank you for that comprehensive history. Isn't it strange how we are not even free of the British social class system after death.
I am here due to the video of June 2024, and I am lucky to be able to watch this. Jago, you are literarily at your best here! Thank you for a lot of morbid humour. You are the hilarity for my morbidity, if I may be so bold.
Very interesting take on the Stiffs Express railway! As usual packed with information and a good bit of humour thrown in. Great photography too. Thanks.
Thank you Jago, the Necropolis line has been of a great fascination to me for a long time and while lockdown happened myself and my partner took the chance to visit the terminus end and was just amazed at how expansive the entire area was.
A former colleague lived in Brookwood across the mainline from the Cemetery. His wife, who was from Thailand, was concerned by the proximity of the cemetery but he reassured her that ghosts couldn’t cross the railway because of the third rail!
Sydney had a contemporary Mortuary Station adjacent to Central Station. The Heritage Listed platform still exists, featuring beautiful gothic sandstone arches. Destination was Rookwood Cemetery. Back then, in the 'countryside'. Interesting to learn where this piece of Australia's history most likely had its conceptual origins. Funfact: Old Aussie slang for being very sick, likely to die = "As crook as Rookwood".
Excellent and I’m sure my old friend John Clarke would endorse this comprehensive video of the Necropolis Railway. John took it a stage further once he completed the book he made a working model of the line.🙏
My first wife and I did a lot of our courting in Brookwood Cemetery and picnics on the platform of the North Station were a regular part of that. The Cemetery itself is well worth a day out, for the architecture of tombs, the sheer scale of the place and the tranquility. I never found it morbid, death is, after all, the only thing in life that is guaranteed...
I used to have regular appointments at a place on Dufferin Street and walked through Bunhill Fields from City Road. I liked looking at the ancient headstones, although on some of them the dedication could not be read.
The original Nunhead Junction (1871) was sited to provide access to Nunhead Cemetery, one of the Big Seven, albeit thirty years after the cemetery was opened. Services for the deceased operated for a while until the station was re-sited the other side of Gibbon Road in 1924.
Brookwood station has a somewhat different place in my memories. It's the station for what was the Guard's Depot (that's Guards as in Army rather than railway or stagecoach).
The passengers had to travel at the same class as the dead. You could not send the late departed passenger 3rd Class and treat the living waiting to depart to 1st Class. Brookwood is a great place to visit and was saved by one Ramadan Güney to live again as a place to bury the dead. My mum and dad lie there.
Sydney has its necropolis/cemetery at Rookwood which was once served by a train line from Mortuary Station aka Regent Street Railways Station not far from Central Station. Both stations are closed. There used to be a pancake restaurant aboard a couple of the coaches.
Wonderful, as always, Mr Hazzard. Dry wit, full of facts and great social history. I wonder, however, what is going through the minds of the 10 people who have given this a thumbs down - what is not to like?
Rookwood Necropolis in the Sydney suburb of Lidcombe was served by a railway line until the late 1940s. The original station in Sydney is still standing next to Central station. The main receiving station at the cemetery was later moved to Canberra where it became the Anglican church in the suburb of Ainslie.
I started on the railway as a guard in 1994. We were shown a locked compartment on a train that instead of seating had two benches. We were told that they were for coffins for delivery to London cemeteries (the train was an old electric unit from London)
I was gonna ask you to cover this but I thought, no hang on, this is Jago! He's no 8 bit train enthusiast, he tries to flog me VPNs whilst making me laugh every time a video goes up. Awesome to see your following growing and along for the ride! Stay safe :) P.S. Eagerly anticipation the next blurb of Holmes and Watson.
Brookwood cemetery was enormous. My father, until his death, lived in a house on an unadopted road owned by the cemetery. It took twenty minutes by car from his house to my mother's grave in the cemetery. This cemetery was the subject of deeply unsettling corruption case, involving the owner's common-law wife and a very corrupt police senior office. There was talk of deadly doings.
Two songs spring to mind while watching this video. The First an old music hall song called "Sewer" (or "They're removing granddads grave to build a sewer")I first heard the very fine Peter Sellers version. The Second is "Third Class Coffin" from Steam Punk (and the emphasis is punk) band, "The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing " who make a habit of writing songs about Victorian subjects (and several are rather good). It is specifically about this railway.
Here's a third, rather newer one for you: 'Black Train' by Scurravagus. The crew is made up of The Four Railwaymen of the Apocalypse: it's the Grim Sleeper. To put it another way, the Black Train is a metaphor for death.... ruclips.net/video/XYKRG7Md4Io/видео.html
Really excited to see this covered! I have a copy of a 1980s RMT handbook setting out in great detail the financial allowances each grade of employee could have for transporting the remains of a loved one.
A good addition to your video collection for All Saint's Day Nov 1. Several comments below about Sydney NSW's Rookwood Cemetery Line. The Regent Street Station was done in neo-Gothic style and still exists. The main station at the other end fell into neglect and decay with it's roof burnt in a bushfire sometime in the 1950's (demolition by neglect). Stonework was intact though and transferred to Canberra to make All Saints Church but the stonework wsas rebuilt as a mirror image of the original. It also has as its bell a bell off one of the Newnes Railway Shay locos. Rookwood Cemetery branch actually had 4 stations apart from that one but the others were just platforms. The trackbed remained intact up to the early 1970s when sold off to make more burial room. A remnant track about 500 metres long was retained and used as a shunting track for Liverpool via Regent's Park trains starting from Lidcombe (the original name of which was also Rookwood) but that is now merely 4 cars long now. There was also a station on the main western line adjacent to the north side of the Necropolis called Rookwood but closed in 1967 as patronage had really fallen off. Every station on the Blue Mountains Line had its special mortuary shed for placement of coffins while waiting for the mortuary train to arrive, and they are all still there like this one at Linden www.nswrail.net/locations/show.php?name=NSW:Linden (first photo).
Excellent ! . . . When I saw the title I thought . . . Oh No ! . . . not the necropolis railway story AGAIN, it's already been done to death. . . . However, you've told the story in a fresh and interesting way, plus, I wasn't aware there was an earlier necropolis station at Waterloo until I saw this ! . . . Thanks for highlighting something new . . . to me at least !
@@JagoHazzard And what better way to accompany it, than by 'Black Train' by Scurravagus? The crew is made up of The Four Railwaymen of the Apocalypse: it's the Grim Sleeper. To put it another way, the Black Train is a metaphor for death.... ruclips.net/video/XYKRG7Md4Io/видео.html
I actually found out about Brookwood via Charles Stross, who made this an important part of "The Fuller Memorandum" plot. This was actually fun to read, as this was back in the days before the Martian Brain Fungus had eaten away at Stross' frontal cortex.
You don’t mention it, but part of the diminution in burials was a result of the verdict in the trial of Dr. William Price, who was prosecuted for the attempted cremation of his infant son. He was acquitted as there was no legal reason to prohibit cremation, and not long afterwards the first crematorium was built and opened for business in Woking, not far from the Brookwood cemetery.
Dr. Price was a remarkable character. Way ahead of his time in many ways, not just cremation. Glyntaff crematorium in his home town of Pontypridd was one of the first crematoria in the UK.
Great video and very informative, since I found out about this rail line some years ago I have been looking forward to the time that Jago would cover it.
There were funeral trains in NSW, Australia, the busiest was from Mortuary Station in Sydney slightly west of the current Central station, out to Rookwood in West Sydney. One of the station buildings at Rookwood was eventually demolished and rebuilt as All Saints Anglican Church, in Ainslie, Canberra.
That was dead good 👍 Fascinating railway. I was utterly intrigued by it when I first learnt of it in a book covering the history of the LSWR in the late 90s, and it was more than deserving of getting the Jago treatment 😎 Not sure if you were going to cover the station to the north of Kings X, but I am sure there was actually a model of it that I saw some time ago now, which featured the LNER main line 🤔 The necropolis are truly ghoulishly fascinating 👍🍀🍻
Interesting video. Looking forward to the coverage of the other company, I've heard the station they constructed is briefly visible in the film 'The Ladykillers'. Something I do hope you cover one day is the London deep level shelters, it's known that consideration was given at the time of construction of using them to create a 'deep District line', but I'd love to know if any concrete plans were drawn up. From what I do know the shelter tunnels were designed as running tunnels, not station tunnels.
A bit of confusion regarding the deep level District here... that was in fact a completely different scheme, running from Earl's Court to Mansion House IIRC (could be wrong there) as an express route with only a couple of intermediate stops. Work was begun but abandoned after a short time. The shelters to which you refer were built under the Northern and, yes, it was envisaged they could be incorporated as part of a Northern express service but of course that never happened. The excellent book, "Rails Through The Clay" (ISBN 185414 151 1) covers both schemes. I'm assuming it's still in print... I have a copy of the second edition and would expect that a newer edition has been printed to incorporate the JLE to Stratford.
Jago, I find your videos fascinating and very engaging. I especially love the fact you can interject humour into such subjects with an honest opinion on various related matters. It makes for a refreshing approach. It would be very nice if you could do a video about the other funeral service, this video has left me most intrigued on what is a little known subject outside of very dedicated enthusiasts.
On a related note, the Poet John Clare never travelled by train in his lifetime living in much simpler (and probably impoverished) times. He did however travel by train for his funeral.
Rather like Queen Victoria travelled many times by train but liked speed limited to 40 mph. She died at Osborne House and was conveyed back to London for her funeral, but the connecting boat was late and Edward VII told them they could make up lost time. So her final journey by train was considerably her fastest.
Sydney Australia has a massive Rookwood cemetery that was once well of town, and once serviced by a rail service from a special station near our main station. As Sydney's urban sprawl blew right past the station it is our most in demand cemetery and filling up fast.
Proper snort over 'the Necropolitan', but I came here to say this railway is possibly the only one to have a song written about it by London scamps The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing - 'Third Class Coffin' from 'Not Your Typical Victorians'. Top work as ever.
I remember reading part of book about the railway. I visit brookwood often as it’s fascinating. The idea of the funeral train was a great idea at the time but it sadly was not as popular as they had hoped.
I just noticed that the flags on Waterloo Station in the shot at 3:12 are at half-mast. This is presumably coincidental, but still a nice touch in a video about a cemetery.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
I imagine that as the cemetary line decreased in popularity over time they were reduced to providing a skeleton service.
You mean it *deceased* in popularity, right?
@@KasabianFan44 That was a dead giveaway...
I'm surprised, people were dying to get on this train!
Too much levity and not enough gravity, chaps.
It began in the usual opulent Victorian fashion, but ended as a bare-bones operation.
"Well we're happy to sell you a coffin ticket Mr Alucard; but this is the first time we've been asked about a season ticket."
The Necropolis Railway.
Satisfaction guaranteed, you will never live to regret it.
Full refunds available to dissatisfied clients on personal application to....
I was devastated to learn that they didn’t offer return fares. I feel that’s unfair to Buddhists: how are you going to come back?
Service to die for.
But everyone was late.
"The Necropolitan."
...well who else could come up with that? Nice one, Jago. Have had a morbid curiosity with this line for years.
DownUnder here in Melbourne, our Victoria Market is built over the original city cemetery. A carpark now covers the less wealthy stiffs whose descendants didn't have the means to relocate them to the now overcrowded General Cemetery... 👻
I watched a video on this yesterday - Train of Thought channel !
Once the Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton and suburban cemeteries were nearly full, the Springvale cemetery was built with its own branch off the Gippsland main line. At the end of the branch there was a special station for mourners. The Fawkner cemetery was also strategically placed surrounding the railway extending north from Coburg. So while Melbourne is only 2/3 the size of London, it also had a couple of similar stations.
Yep, you're right, hadn't seen it from that perspective. Then, perhaps The Family got interested...
I had to rewind for that one, thought I’d misheard 😅
When you think you've bought a ticket to travel on the Metropolitan Line,but...
The Necropolis and its railway have been covered several times on TV, including one of Michael Portillo's jaunts, but Jago managed to pack in a lot more information and some beautiful photography. Well worth watching even if you've seen previous coverage.
That's because Jago doesn't descend to tedious participatory hi-jinks
I watched a video on this yesterday - Train of Thought channel !
@@brucewilliams8714 Yes, though to be fair I don't think Portillo actually dug a grave in that episode.
@@DavidB5501 He showed a few of the larger memorials from memory.
Also better gags.
"The van driver survived, although those in the hearse wagon were all deceased" ... pricelless
Twice dead ? Good thing it was a van and not someones Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.
The " no return ticket" is a close second
Ahhhh the Necropolis Railway, the only railway commuters were dying to use.
As told after WW2 it was a dead loss. A dying trade as it were.
While others would not want to be seen dead in it.
As apposed to the Moorgate-bound services, which people at one point were using to die.
Wait, are they coming back???
Technically, not commuters.
Cue "One way ticket" - Eruption.
It wasn't the cough that carried him off, it was the coffin they carried him off in. I thought that the necropolis was the dead centre of London but now I know better - thank you Jago
Putting it there would’ve been a grave mistake.
Sorry if I was too cryptic.
"Return fares weren't available." I, for one, am very relieved about that. But by far the best smileworthy comment was "The Necropolitan". Fine form, Mr. Hazzard. Fine form, indeed.
Interestingly there was a somewhat similar railway in Berlin although it was built a bit later (finally opened in 1913 after first plans/proposals were already made in 1872 ...)
It´s called the "Friedhofsbahn" (literally: cemetary railway) which ultimately lasted until august 1961 when the "Berlin Wall" was erected.
The line end (Stahnsdorf station) was on GDR territory and became inaccessible for anyone (dead or alive) from West-Berlin.
Btw.: Abandoned parts of the track still exist to date ...
Ah yes, German cemetery stories.
I love a good Tod Talk.
Read once somewhere that Brookwood was especially popular (so to speak) with actors, musicians, and stagehands, since it was one of a very few cemeteries in London that performed burials on Sundays - some Music Hall type performers would do as many as two-three shows a day, six days a week, and Sunday would have been their only day off because theatres were closed on Sundays. And so there's a fairly large contingent of the 19th-century London stage that ended up there.
Some die on stage without even going there, to this day
'Underneath the Arches' down the Necropolis line
The toughest crowd ever. You put on your greatest performance, & get dead silence.
And as mourners gathered around the graveside, they were politely told to "mind the gap".
I think Jago should have this on his head stone
@@russellnixon9981 Well, judging by his videos, he's not got a one track mind :)
@@russellnixon9981 At Jago’s funeral, all the mourners will file by the casket to say, “You are the _______ to my _______.”
Good Lord, can you imagine how massive a nationwide cemetery for the whole of Britain would have been had that come to pass? A vast landscape of greenery under a heavenly sky, with gravestones and monuments stretching as far as the eye could see, the monotony occasionally broken by little chapels. That would have been an incredible sight.
Aye. A cementery like this would've warranted a serious internal tram or train network to get around.
@@AldanFerrox Volk has entered the chat
My first thought when Jago mentioned it was that it would be a massive sod to get to for almost anyone wanting to visit a grave, which is surely the main point in having actual marked graves for the dead. (Leaving aside religious arguments, which I don't know anything about.)
there would only be few places in the entire country where you could build it,would have to be on ground useless for farming and far away from any cities urban growth area
Probably a country estate somewhere that got sucked into the government coffers due to death taxes
If you happen to find yourself at Brookwood station, if you leave the southbound platform down the stairs and turn right at the bottom of those stairs, you will leave the station into the cemetery and there is a section of the old necropolis track with information about it.
In the US a number of streetcar and interurban companies had specialized funeral car to run the departed and mourners to cemeteries on the line. J.G.Brills 1910 catalogue shows many styles, from 4 wheel trailers to very large cars with provision for two coffins. There is one car surviving that I know of: Descanso at the Southern California Railway Museum(formerly Orange Empire).
For decades, Descanso served as the telegraph office at Cajon Summit. The perfect place to work the graveyard shift.
I have seen many many videos on this subject and this is one of the best. Apart from Jago’s slightly cynical commentary which I love, I am always impressed with the research he does and getting the level of detail right. I did not know that the remaining entrance was not the original one for example.
I think Robslondon did a little more detail on this , but Jago got the flavour just right.
“Presumably, return fares weren’t available.” 😂
Only at Halloween 🤣
There were, but only for mourners
@@cockneyse the golfers started using them to go to golf course around hitching the return train after playing their round
@@anthonydefreitas6006 🤣
'Black' humour is the best!
Fascinating! One of my fave creepy London stories. About 15 years ago, myself and a mate went to explore the station near Waterloo, we managed to get round the back where the morgue has been turned into a storage firm, the blokes running it gave us a tour of the huge areas where the coffins would have been stacked. So interesting! Happy Halloween 👻
The Kings Cross fire, I came out of the station 10 minutes before the fire engines began to arrive. One theory for how it started was a still smouldering cigarette butt was dropped on to the escalator, which then found its was on to pile of flammable debris which had accumulated underneath. The rest. as they say, was history. London Transport then banned smoking on the Underground to prevent a repeation of the disaster
many years ago,that 109 westminster bridge road used to be a post office,and i used to drive in to there ,push the button for the turn-table to turn the p.o. van round,and if you looked up could see all the old stuff up there.
The hearse van looked like a right old boneshaker.
I doubt any complaints were received from the passingers.
When the PRR Broadway Limited & NYC Twentieth Century Limited used to race each other east of Englewood, one of them would win. But when the funeral trains raced, they were always tied in a…
dead heat.
Necropolitan line...veery smoothly done. Nice 👍🏻
A morbidly fascinating subject, Jago; one I'm a bit surprised you hadn't covered until now.
7:30 Ah, now there's a name that jumps right out at me. One of Drummond's most famous locomotive designs (the Caledonian Railway Single No.123; now preserved at Glasgow's Riverside Muesum as one of only 3 surviving CR locomotives) was a noted player in the 1888 'Race to the North'. He was also a expert witness to the Tay Bridge disaster (one of his engines was due to take the train that fell with the bridge, but it had broken down and had to be replaced by one designed by Thomas Wheatley; this engine was recovered, repaired and returned to service and thereafter was known by engine crews as 'The Diver') in 1880.
Drummond really did design some corkers, spanning north to south, a lot surviving well into the 60s. the hornby pug was based on one of his in fact!
The Scottish trains that ran on Sundays back then were generally so disreputable that some passengers might have been impressed to see 224, an impressive 4-4-0 at the head of the train. She was the Dundee relief that day, taking the place of an 0-4-2 tank engine called 'Ladybank', which, as you correctly state, was designed by Drummond.
Great stuff as always, sir. Used to live in Woking and worked at the Sainsburys in Brookwood/Knaphill, funnily enough built on top of the old loony bin you mentioned. Some buildings were saved and turned into houses and flats and you can clearly tell as they have huge windows.
Baltimore had a streetcar connection to one its cemeteries,and a couple of Interurbans ran cemetery trains out of Chicago,plus the Elevated Company had a converted car for that use! Later made into a medical car! Something you didn't see every day,or night either! Thanks for another interesting video,Jago 😀!!
A great video! Honorary mention of Queen Victoria’s last journey: in February 1901 her body travelled from the Isle of Wight to Windsor by train.
Curiously, her coffin arrived to Waterloo and then the procession followed to Paddington from where the journey to Windsor commenced - despite the direct railway link from Waterloo to Windsor. This was probably arranged to allow the funeral procession in London.
I wasn't aware of this railway until I read "The Necropolis Railway" by Andrew Martin. Since then I've researched various sources and been none the wiser.., and then your video comes along and explains it all perfectly. Very well done sir!!
You might be interested to know that there used to be a similar service - le Tramway de Loyasse - that went up to the Loyasse cemetery on the Fourvière Hill in the centre of the French city of Lyon. The viaduct is still there and it's now a footbridge.
“Once the dearly departed, had departed” 😂
That tower cemetery idea at 1:42 reminded me of the cemetery I visited in Hong Kong with a Chinese family who were paying their respects to passed-on relatives. It was on a series of ridges or steppes,one directly after another,on a hillside,with a strip of ground for groups of people to move along in front of a long line of graves side-by-side on each one. Such an arragement was necessary because of the lack of available land space,and its sheer cost,there. I was also with them on viewings of a few high rise apartments as they were considering buying one (one was on about the 60th floor). As none of those came cheap,and neither does the cost of buying or renting a burial plot,the Chinese chap who brought me with him there told me that "the most expensive things to do in Hong Kong are to live and to die".
Please do cover the other service as it is hardly known about. I thought you were very restrained with the punnage. Well done covering a touchy subject so well.
Brilliant, just brilliant. I died laughing at spots. Thank you for undertaking this topic.
Sydney's Central Railway Station (the terminus for country trains as well as being on many suburban lines) was built on the site of a cemetery. Most remains were reburied elsewhere, but some were recently found (and identified) during work to expand the station. You may be interested to research that. Also there's a beautiful old building nearby called Mortuary Station which had a similar story to this video but in Sydney's case connected to Rookwood, not Brookwood
I have been to Central many times when visiting Australia and Sydney. This new discovery was reported in the uk media a few days ago. I hope Australia returns to normal one day to enable another visit. Thanks for the info and it would make an interesting video if Jago did do a historical video on this.
The Sydney Mortuary Station is also known as Regent Street. A mirror image copy of it was built at the Rookwood Cemetery end. When the line was closed in 1948, the Rookwood Cemetery Station No.1 was dismantled and transported stone by stone to Canberra, where it's now All Saints Church.
Mortuary Station in Sydney has been available for hire, weddings and press launches and the like, for some time.
I used to use Central regularly. It has a very scrappy layout, from what I remember of it?
@@andrewgwilliam4831 You won't recognise it if you go back. Big $s being spent on construction of a new Central Walk under the suburban platforms, new concourse for the Metro and a new roof and open concourse over platforms 8-15
Over the years I've seen so many videos on the Necropolis railway and this video still is fresh. Well done Mr Hazzard.
Is that a coffee cup? Please take your Hazzardous waste when disembarking. I just thought of that!
So the death of railways finally came for the necropolis line, with apologies to Pratchett.
Now I'm imagining the weirdest episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.
“RIGHT AWAY.”
This video was made with thoughtfulness. Well done.
For many years of commuting into Waterloo and having to wait for our train to be allowed onto its platform, I used to look at that junction, just out of Waterloo station and wonder what it was for/ why it was there. I only heard about the Necropolis line more recently. Thank you for that comprehensive history. Isn't it strange how we are not even free of the British social class system after death.
Been to Brookwood many times as it's the closest stop to Pirbright Army Camp.
Another fascinating vid from Jago
My homepage is decided I’m going to stay up and watch Jargo all night
I am here due to the video of June 2024, and I am lucky to be able to watch this. Jago, you are literarily at your best here! Thank you for a lot of morbid humour. You are the hilarity for my morbidity, if I may be so bold.
Very interesting take on the Stiffs Express railway! As usual packed with information and a good bit of humour thrown in. Great photography too. Thanks.
Thank you Jago, the Necropolis line has been of a great fascination to me for a long time and while lockdown happened myself and my partner took the chance to visit the terminus end and was just amazed at how expansive the entire area was.
A former colleague lived in Brookwood across the mainline from the Cemetery. His wife, who was from Thailand, was concerned by the proximity of the cemetery but he reassured her that ghosts couldn’t cross the railway because of the third rail!
Sydney had a contemporary Mortuary Station adjacent to Central Station. The Heritage Listed platform still exists, featuring beautiful gothic sandstone arches. Destination was Rookwood Cemetery. Back then, in the 'countryside'. Interesting to learn where this piece of Australia's history most likely had its conceptual origins. Funfact: Old Aussie slang for being very sick, likely to die = "As crook as Rookwood".
This video was a really lovely way to start my day. An interesting topic wonderfully presented. Thanks Jago :)
There was a short-lived (hah!) one heading North to New Southgate from KingsX, too.
I was sifting through thinking of mentioning it.
Excellent and I’m sure my old friend John Clarke would endorse this comprehensive video of the Necropolis Railway. John took it a stage further once he completed the book he made a working model of the line.🙏
Is the train exhibited anywhere?
My first wife and I did a lot of our courting in Brookwood Cemetery and picnics on the platform of the North Station were a regular part of that.
The Cemetery itself is well worth a day out, for the architecture of tombs, the sheer scale of the place and the tranquility.
I never found it morbid, death is, after all, the only thing in life that is guaranteed...
"the sheer scale of the place and the tranquility"
Was it dead quiet ?
And Taxes
Went there a few years ago. Beautiful cemetery and took hours to explore.
And taxes. Taxes, too, are guaranteed.
I used to have regular appointments at a place on Dufferin Street and walked through Bunhill Fields from City Road. I liked looking at the ancient headstones, although on some of them the dedication could not be read.
The original Nunhead Junction (1871) was sited to provide access to Nunhead Cemetery, one of the Big Seven, albeit thirty years after the cemetery was opened. Services for the deceased operated for a while until the station was re-sited the other side of Gibbon Road in 1924.
Brookwood station has a somewhat different place in my memories. It's the station for what was the Guard's Depot (that's Guards as in Army rather than railway or stagecoach).
The passengers had to travel at the same class as the dead. You could not send the late departed passenger 3rd Class and treat the living waiting to depart to 1st Class. Brookwood is a great place to visit and was saved by one Ramadan Güney to live again as a place to bury the dead. My mum and dad lie there.
My second wife served as a nurse at Knaphill Mental Hospital way back in the 70's. She used to travel to Brookwood from Waterloo.
@@acleray My great aunty died in Knaphill, she didnt recover from the death of her mother and her father's remarring according to her step-daughter.
Sydney has its necropolis/cemetery at Rookwood which was once served by a train line from Mortuary Station aka Regent Street Railways Station not far from Central Station. Both stations are closed. There used to be a pancake restaurant aboard a couple of the coaches.
Missed the B off Rookwood ;)
Wonderful, as always, Mr Hazzard. Dry wit, full of facts and great social history. I wonder, however, what is going through the minds of the 10 people who have given this a thumbs down - what is not to like?
They’re dead-set against it.
Thanks
Nice shot of Colliers Wood at 6:20.
Rookwood Necropolis in the Sydney suburb of Lidcombe was served by a railway line until the late 1940s. The original station in Sydney is still standing next to Central station. The main receiving station at the cemetery was later moved to Canberra where it became the Anglican church in the suburb of Ainslie.
I started on the railway as a guard in 1994. We were shown a locked compartment on a train that instead of seating had two benches. We were told that they were for coffins for delivery to London cemeteries (the train was an old electric unit from London)
I was gonna ask you to cover this but I thought, no hang on, this is Jago! He's no 8 bit train enthusiast, he tries to flog me VPNs whilst making me laugh every time a video goes up.
Awesome to see your following growing and along for the ride! Stay safe :) P.S. Eagerly anticipation the next blurb of Holmes and Watson.
I've heard of this line, but have learnt so much from you 🧡
Brookwood cemetery was enormous. My father, until his death, lived in a house on an unadopted road owned by the cemetery. It took twenty minutes by car from his house to my mother's grave in the cemetery. This cemetery was the subject of deeply unsettling corruption case, involving the owner's common-law wife and a very corrupt police senior office. There was talk of deadly doings.
I like the phrase ‘Monumental Mason’. It conjures up a image of a huge guy in a apron, brandishing a gigantic trowel!
... with a funny handshake.
@@RadioJonophone and a rolled up trouser leg.
I will en-Shrine these great comments, but only by degrees.
Two songs spring to mind while watching this video.
The First an old music hall song called "Sewer" (or "They're removing granddads grave to build a sewer")I first heard the very fine Peter Sellers version.
The Second is "Third Class Coffin" from Steam Punk (and the emphasis is punk) band, "The Men That Will Not Be Blamed for Nothing " who make a habit of writing songs about Victorian subjects (and several are rather good). It is specifically about this railway.
Here's a third, rather newer one for you: 'Black Train' by Scurravagus. The crew is made up of The Four Railwaymen of the Apocalypse: it's the Grim Sleeper. To put it another way, the Black Train is a metaphor for death.... ruclips.net/video/XYKRG7Md4Io/видео.html
Really excited to see this covered! I have a copy of a 1980s RMT handbook setting out in great detail the financial allowances each grade of employee could have for transporting the remains of a loved one.
I've been dying to see this one
Jago has done it again, great video great subject great commentary, hat off to you sir, looking forward as always to next episode 🙂👍🏽
Presumably the final railway station was a dead end?
Brookwood is somewhere I'd like to visit the next time I'm in London. Great video, thank you.
A good addition to your video collection for All Saint's Day Nov 1.
Several comments below about Sydney NSW's Rookwood Cemetery Line. The Regent Street Station was done in neo-Gothic style and still exists. The main station at the other end fell into neglect and decay with it's roof burnt in a bushfire sometime in the 1950's (demolition by neglect). Stonework was intact though and transferred to Canberra to make All Saints Church but the stonework wsas rebuilt as a mirror image of the original. It also has as its bell a bell off one of the Newnes Railway Shay locos.
Rookwood Cemetery branch actually had 4 stations apart from that one but the others were just platforms. The trackbed remained intact up to the early 1970s when sold off to make more burial room. A remnant track about 500 metres long was retained and used as a shunting track for Liverpool via Regent's Park trains starting from Lidcombe (the original name of which was also Rookwood) but that is now merely 4 cars long now.
There was also a station on the main western line adjacent to the north side of the Necropolis called Rookwood but closed in 1967 as patronage had really fallen off.
Every station on the Blue Mountains Line had its special mortuary shed for placement of coffins while waiting for the mortuary train to arrive, and they are all still there like this one at Linden www.nswrail.net/locations/show.php?name=NSW:Linden (first photo).
I could have sworn I saw the ghost of a previously uploaded video about an urban legend, but I must be wrong because it's disappeared.
Excellent ! . . . When I saw the title I thought . . . Oh No ! . . . not the necropolis railway story AGAIN, it's already been done to death. . . . However, you've told the story in a fresh and interesting way, plus, I wasn't aware there was an earlier necropolis station at Waterloo until I saw this ! . . . Thanks for highlighting something new . . . to me at least !
Thanks! Yeah, I figured that if I was going to cover it, I should try to get something new.
@@JagoHazzard And what better way to accompany it, than by 'Black Train' by Scurravagus? The crew is made up of The Four Railwaymen of the Apocalypse: it's the Grim Sleeper. To put it another way, the Black Train is a metaphor for death.... ruclips.net/video/XYKRG7Md4Io/видео.html
I actually found out about Brookwood via Charles Stross, who made this an important part of "The Fuller Memorandum" plot.
This was actually fun to read, as this was back in the days before the Martian Brain Fungus had eaten away at Stross' frontal cortex.
You don’t mention it, but part of the diminution in burials was a result of the verdict in the trial of Dr. William Price, who was prosecuted for the attempted cremation of his infant son. He was acquitted as there was no legal reason to prohibit cremation, and not long afterwards the first crematorium was built and opened for business in Woking, not far from the Brookwood cemetery.
Dr. Price was a remarkable character. Way ahead of his time in many ways, not just cremation. Glyntaff crematorium in his home town of Pontypridd was one of the first crematoria in the UK.
“Death is a problem”. Seriously? Absolutely epic!
Great video and very informative, since I found out about this rail line some years ago I have been looking forward to the time that Jago would cover it.
Unusually, although sited near Woking, Brookwood was the dead centre of London.
There were funeral trains in NSW, Australia, the busiest was from Mortuary Station in Sydney slightly west of the current Central station, out to Rookwood in West Sydney. One of the station buildings at Rookwood was eventually demolished and rebuilt as All Saints Anglican Church, in Ainslie, Canberra.
Well done Jago, one of your very best videos yet, covering a little slice of Waterloo and Surrey history that has long fascinated me
That was dead good 👍
Fascinating railway. I was utterly intrigued by it when I first learnt of it in a book covering the history of the LSWR in the late 90s, and it was more than deserving of getting the Jago treatment 😎
Not sure if you were going to cover the station to the north of Kings X, but I am sure there was actually a model of it that I saw some time ago now, which featured the LNER main line 🤔
The necropolis are truly ghoulishly fascinating 👍🍀🍻
One your very best. Just brilliant. Thank you!
You sir, are an excellent story teller. I enjoy everyone of your posts.
Thank you 😊.
Interesting video. Looking forward to the coverage of the other company, I've heard the station they constructed is briefly visible in the film 'The Ladykillers'. Something I do hope you cover one day is the London deep level shelters, it's known that consideration was given at the time of construction of using them to create a 'deep District line', but I'd love to know if any concrete plans were drawn up. From what I do know the shelter tunnels were designed as running tunnels, not station tunnels.
A bit of confusion regarding the deep level District here... that was in fact a completely different scheme, running from Earl's Court to Mansion House IIRC (could be wrong there) as an express route with only a couple of intermediate stops. Work was begun but abandoned after a short time. The shelters to which you refer were built under the Northern and, yes, it was envisaged they could be incorporated as part of a Northern express service but of course that never happened. The excellent book, "Rails Through The Clay" (ISBN 185414 151 1) covers both schemes. I'm assuming it's still in print... I have a copy of the second edition and would expect that a newer edition has been printed to incorporate the JLE to Stratford.
Jago, I find your videos fascinating and very engaging. I especially love the fact you can interject humour into such subjects with an honest opinion on various related matters. It makes for a refreshing approach.
It would be very nice if you could do a video about the other funeral service, this video has left me most intrigued on what is a little known subject outside of very dedicated enthusiasts.
One of your best ones! More about London cemetaries and the Stiff's Express can be found in 'At Home' by Bill Bryson, well worth a read.
Joke at 9:50 Chef's kiss!!!! such good delivery!
On a related note, the Poet John Clare never travelled by train in his lifetime living in much simpler (and probably impoverished) times. He did however travel by train for his funeral.
Rather like Queen Victoria travelled many times by train but liked speed limited to 40 mph. She died at Osborne House and was conveyed back to London for her funeral, but the connecting boat was late and Edward VII told them they could make up lost time. So her final journey by train was considerably her fastest.
My partner has heard me talk about the Necropolis railway, but he found your version far more entertaining. 🙂
Sydney Australia has a massive Rookwood cemetery that was once well of town, and once serviced by a rail service from a special station near our main station. As Sydney's urban sprawl blew right past the station it is our most in demand cemetery and filling up fast.
Proper snort over 'the Necropolitan', but I came here to say this railway is possibly the only one to have a song written about it by London scamps The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing - 'Third Class Coffin' from 'Not Your Typical Victorians'. Top work as ever.
Now that's what I call a late train.
It has ceased to be..
Ta Jago.
I remember reading part of book about the railway. I visit brookwood often as it’s fascinating. The idea of the funeral train was a great idea at the time but it sadly was not as popular as they had hoped.
A tasteful yet humorous video for the season!
thoroughly enjoy your videos, thank you.
Super video, I am glad you covered this line, I’ve been dying to watch it. More please.
Passengers detraining at Brookwood are requested to refrain from gasping, staggering backwards, and saying "I see dead people!"
Absolutely fascinating... bring on the sequel.
I just noticed that the flags on Waterloo Station in the shot at 3:12 are at half-mast. This is presumably coincidental, but still a nice touch in a video about a cemetery.
Train of thought: Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary.
And yet another very interesting video! Thanks!