London Necropolis Company

The London Necropolis Company was established by Act of Parliament in 1852. The LNC intended to establish a single cemetery large enough to accommodate all of London’s future burials in perpetuity. Financial mismanagement and internal disputes led to delays in the project. 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.

About London Necropolis Company in brief

Summary London Necropolis CompanyThe London Necropolis Company was established by Act of Parliament in 1852. The LNC intended to establish a single cemetery large enough to accommodate all of London’s future burials in perpetuity. Financial mismanagement and internal disputes led to delays in the project. In its first 150 years of operations only 231,730 burials had been conducted. 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. 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. The company also provided the land for a number of significant military cemeteries and memorials at Brookwood after both World Wars. In 1941 the LNC’s London railway terminus was badly damaged by bombing, and the London Necropolitan Railway was abandoned. The London Necretion Company is now a private company based in London, with offices in Surrey and Hertfordshire. It is owned by a group of former LNC employees. It was formed in 1851 in reaction to the crisis caused by the closure of London’S graveyards in 1850. The founders recognised that the recently invented technology of the railway provided the ability to conduct burials a long distance from populated areas, mitigating concerns over public health risks from living near burial sites.

By the time Brookwood. Cemetery opened in late 1854, a. number of other cemetersies had opened nearer to London or were in the process of opening. 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. Despite this rapid growth in population, the amount of land set aside for use remained unchanged at approximately 300 acres. In 1851 a little under a half million people in London and almost two million in 1801 and almost 200 acres spread across around 200 sites. A proposal to use the reconstruction of the 1666 Great Fire of London as an opportunity to establish new cemetry was approved by the King and Parliament but vetoed by the Corporation of London, and burials continued at the newly rebuilt churches. In the first half of the 19th century the population of London doubled, from a little over a million to almost almost a million in two and a half decades. The cemetery was chosen in the first place for its remoteness, but as the land had been chosen to be around 25 miles from London, it was very expensive to build. By 1854 the cemetery and railway had been very expensive, and by the time the cemetery opened the L NC was already on the verge of bankruptcy. In the 1880s the company began a more aggressive programme to maximise its income. The process for the sale of surplus land was improved, resulting in increased income.