Overcrowding of London’s cemeteries contributed to the 1848 outbreak of Cholera. A necropolis railway that transported London’s dead 25 miles away to Brookwood was a solution offered by Sir Richard Braun in 1849. From November 1854 to 1902 the station operated out of York Street (now Leak St), however due to the plan to expand passenger travel a deal was made that resulted in the station and platform being moved to Westminster Bridge road.
Westminster Bridge Road is the address of the offices and facade and behind this, was the platform. This platform, is todays Make Space Studios. Three-carriage trains took coffins and mourners from the station directly to platforms within the cemetery.
Prior to 1900 funeral trains usually ran once each day, but after this only operated “as required”, until by the mid-1930s they only ran twice each week; much of their traffic having moved to the road network. On the night of 16 April 1941 the platform was hit by bombs and never rebuilt or re-opened. However, the entrance to the station still stands in Westminster Bridge Road.
We have not been able to find out the exact dates of the subsequent uses of the site. It appears that some time in the 1970’s Network Rail erected five prefabricated buildings on the site which they used for several decades as a central London training facility. This fell into disuse about a decade ago and in the interim has been briefly used by companies associated with the railways.
Make Space Studios took over the site in January 2010 and know it to have been abandoned for at least the three years prior to this time.
New life has been breathed into these buildings and it is now home to over 70 artists and practitioners.
The site has been remembered in several videos and the above book.
For more information go to
http://www.planetslade.com/necropolis-railway1.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A19142165
