London of the Dead Photography - M1key - Michal Huniewicz

London of the Dead by Michal Huniewicz

It's October, so a good opportunity to look at some darker themes around London.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Uploaded on: 2019-10-21.

London

Southwark Bridge

Southwark Bridge
Sun setting in the west - final minutes of light.
ISO 160, 4mm, f/1.8, 1/50s.

London Necropolis Railway

London Necropolis Railway
In the early 19th century, London became the largest city in the world. [1] Many people lived here, and therefore many died. Because a horse-drawn hearse is slow, a Victorian solution was to create a train for the dead so they could quickly reach burial grounds. This is the facade of the London Necropolis Railway. [2]
ISO 400, 24mm, f/5.6, 1/50s.

Towards Waterloo

Towards Waterloo
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 37 km southwest of London in Brookwood, Surrey. [2]
ISO 100, 32mm, f/5.6, 1/60s.

Stone Cold

Stone Cold
At the time, that was the largest cemetery in the world, and sufficiently far from the city to avoid the outbreak of a plague.
ISO 2200, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Mosaic

Mosaic
The railway mostly ran along the existing tracks of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) but had its own branches from the main line at both London and Brookwood. [2]
ISO 3200, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Scream

Scream
The station waiting rooms and 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. [2]
ISO 2500, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Give Way

Give Way
Overall, the plan was not successful, and only about 2,300 thousand bodies were carried annually.
ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

London Eye

London Eye
After 1941, when the tracks were bombed, the London Necropolis Railway was never to be used again. We don't need it now because we have cars to carry corpses quickly.
ISO 1000, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

To the Cemetery

To the Cemetery
Only the bravest visit the Brookwood Cemetery (not really).
ISO 1100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Bricked Up

Bricked Up
It's no longer the largest cemetery in the world, but it is the largest in the UK. The largest cemetery in the world is meant to be Wadi-us-Salaam in Iraq. [3]
ISO 100, 32mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.

Tomb

Tomb
The cemetery is said to have been landscaped by architect William Tite, but this is disputed. [4]
ISO 100, 44mm, f/2.8, 1/125s.

Dzinman

Dzinman
There were two stations in the cemetery: North for non-conformists and South for Anglicans. [4]
ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/160s.

Halloween

Halloween
We've already learnt that, in a true English fashion, everything here was divided by classes.
ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/100s.

Batman

Batman
A first class funeral allowed buyers to select the grave site of their choice anywhere in the cemetery. [4] At the time of opening prices began at £2 10s (about £230 in 2019 terms) for a regular coffin.
ISO 100, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/125s.

Orchestra

Orchestra
Second class funerals cost £1 (about £92 in 2019 terms) and allowed some control over the burial location. You'd have to pay extra for a monument, and no monument meant that the grave could be reused.
In the photo, some sort of commemoration.
ISO 110, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Under a Tree

Under a Tree
Third class funerals were reserved for pauper funerals; those buried at parish expense in the section of the cemetery designated for that parish. Third class funeral meant you could not build a monument.
ISO 110, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Mourning

Mourning
The LNC was forbidden from using mass graves.
ISO 125, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Eyes

Eyes
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. [4]
ISO 1400, 14mm, f/8.0, 1/50s.

Zoroastrian

Zoroastrian
This trip was about a year after my journey to Persia. I was fascinated to find Zoroastrian graves here.
ISO 4000, 14mm, f/11.0, 1/50s.

Immortals

Immortals
Looks, it's the Immortals!
ISO 5000, 14mm, f/11.0, 1/50s.

Graves

Graves
The first burial was of the stillborn twins of a Mr and Mrs Hore of Ewer Street, Southwark Borough. Over 235,000 people have been buried here since then. [4]
ISO 320, 35mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Polish Veterans

Polish Veterans
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. Bodies were therefore moved and re-buried here.
In the photo, graves of Polish veterans.
ISO 1800, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/50s.

Richmond Park

Richmond Park
We fly back to London above the Richmond Park.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.6, 1/400s.

Gilded

Gilded
Past these gilded guardians...
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/450s.

Alexander Pope’s Grotto

Alexander Pope’s Grotto
The grotto by the villa of Alexander Pope. It's an artificial, subterranean creation, an example of 18th century landscape design aimed at creating a mysterious and inspiring fantasy. Not unlike the place in Poland known as Arkadia.
ISO 3200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper
London may have been the largest city in the world, with sumptuous palaces and unrestrained luxury fuelled by colonial exploits, but its very own poor areas could rival the squalor of the Asiatic dominions of Queen Victoria. We're talking the East End of London - where hideous murders by Jack the Ripper took place.
ISO 1600, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/50s.

Mirror

Mirror
The murders took place in Whitechapel, and we don't even know how many there were exactly, although it is usually assumed there were five. [5]
ISO 1250, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.

Disturbed

Disturbed
Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of the East End of London whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations.
ISO 250, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.

Mortuary

Mortuary
It's shocking that despite operating in a small area, and repeteadly, the murderer was never found, and his (her?) identity remains a mystery to this day.
ISO 400, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.

St George In The East Morgue

St George In The East Morgue
It has been said that people's perception of the identity of the killer mirrors their more general fears. Some have thought that the killer was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat who ventured into Whitechapel from a more well-to-do area. Such theories draw on cultural perceptions such as fear of the medical profession, mistrust of modern science, or the exploitation of the poor by the rich. [5] Recently, I heard the killer was Polish.
In the photo, a morgue where some of the victims of Jack the Ripper were inspected.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/120s.