Necropolis: London And Its Dead (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
In thinking about cities and how they work I never considered death in its proper light, and what burial requires in a crowded metropolis. Having just finished Necropolis: London and its Dead, that has certainly changed. Neighbourhoods founded on putrescence, typhoid, bones emerging from the ground along with noxious gases and flying beetles, all of these things were unknown to me and dwelt upon at greater length here.I enjoyed this book, though it is more an historical presentation of quirks and facts around death and burial that does not much interrogate that history. It relates portions of A Journal of the Plague Year, for example, as essentially the straight transcribing of Henry Foe's diaries without discussion of claims that it is one of the earliest novels, and just how much of it is fiction flowing from the pen of nephew Daniel Defoe, the actual author, who was five during the events described. There is no exploration of what drove George Walker and Edwin Chadwick to exhaustively catalog burial grounds and campaign against them, or Isabella Holmes to dedicate her life to cataloging them so that they might be converted into public parks. Views on death are presented as essentially monolithic, though changing over time. Nothing is ever monolithic.So with that caveat, here are a collection of just some of the more interesting facts. There was something about a writer's skull, I can no longer remember now, in fact numerous stories about skulls, bodies left to science, bodies stolen, bodies mummified on public display. I never knew that during the French Revolution people took an entire month destroying the tombs of the Bourbons and the bodies within them, then continued back through the dynasties. I appreciate that kind of revolutionary commitment to such unpleasant work, clearly all of those kings inspired an immensity of fury among their people. Fascinating on a different level was the business of death, though this is hardly a robust political economy of burials and cemeteries:In addition to existing burial grounds, new ones were founded as speculative ventures by entrepreneurs, These were either attached to existing churches and chapels, or created on plots purchased by developers. There were fourteen of these by 1835, including Spa Fields, Clerkenwell, which had started life as a tea-rooms but was then converted to the rather more profitable purpose of human burial: New Bunhill Fields, Islington; Victoria Park Cemetery, Bethnal Green at Cambridge Fields (five acres); and Sheen's New Ground in Whitechapel (two acres) (97).Architects and planners were quick to take note of Loudon's suggestion. Joint stock companies devoted to the foundation of new cemeteries sprang into being...Cemeteries had become a form of property development (125)It is interesting to think of this in relation to the new business of cremation, how hard the possibility of it had to be fought for (aided by Shelley's untimely death, interestingly enough), how that impacted land use in the city and suburbs. In addition to Walker, Chadwick and Holmes there is another figure to investigate further -- Stephen Geary (1797-1854), who over the course of his career designed one of London's first public houses -- The Bell in Pentonville Rd, moved on to design London's first 'gin palace', opened near Aldgate in 1830, and then moved on into cemetery design and formed the London Cemetery Company. He became a teetotaler and I presume slightly less fun all around in his third phase of work, but I love how this can be seen as a progression through alcoholism but also on more metaphysical levels.To find and read, there is Charles Dickens the 'City of the Absent' and the 'Soul of London' by Ford Maddox Ford.Unexpected was the discovery that Victorian mourning dress was actually poisoning people -- the veil was 'Originally made from crape, this oppressive garment frequently afflicted wearers with asthma, catarrh and even cataracts as a result of exposure to the black dyes.' (208) That seems worth more study as well.At the end there comes a description of Charlie Brown's lavish funeral within recent East End memory, owner of the pub the Railway Tavern found at the corner of Garford St in Limehouse. It's like she doesn't quite know what to do with this rowdy outpouring of emotion that doesn't fit into her schematic, like that over the funeral of the Krays (or of Princess Diana). There is story in Morrison's Tales of Mean Streets that exemplifies the spirit of what funerals meant to the poor of the East End, if not the widespread actions of those who are grieving. But I also couldn't help remembering Maud Pember Reeves describing the pennies laid by in societies for the burials of family members, her incomprehension of it until investigation proved the decision as sound as any other. These kinds of nuances and outside sources not directly related to the business of dying and Dickens as old standby aren't much in evidence in here and would have added a good deal I think.I wanted to note also that I never found Bunhill Fields a gloomy place as she does -- somehow that made me question every judgment in here. I find Bunhill Fields quite a wonderful place, unlike say Norwood which I do find overwhelming and creepy. That was the last cemetery I visited and I almost decided once and for all I am no longer fascinated by such places as I once was. But I do love these smaller burial grounds, and all these other cesspools of human remains now made such beautiful and welcome pockets of green filled with flowers, and so I will spend more time tracking down Isabella Holmes, who made that possible.
If you like reading history with a slightly macabre touch, you should find this book to be absolutely fascinating.Here is a brief overview of burial customs through the centuries, from the mass graves hurriedly dug for plague victims to the rising social acceptance of cremation. Several chapters are devoted to the Victorians who elevated mourning and bereavement to an art form. Much like the lavish wedding industry that exists today, funerals were BIG business. Stores like Jay's London General Mourning Warehouse sprang up to serve the needs of the grieving, and social ostracism awaited those who could not afford the required black wardrobe, horses, a carriage and at least fifteen black ostrich feathers.Remember the kerfluffle of a few years back about a mismanaged cemetery and crematorium? Now, imagine if THIS went on today...It emerged that bodies were burned behind a brick enclosure, and gravestones moved about to give the appearance of emptiness in certain parts of the ground. Spa Fields was designed to hold 1,000 bodies. Walker calculated that by burning coffins, mutilating remains, and using vast quantities of quicklime, at least 80,000 corpses had been buried there.Is it any wonder gravediggers needed to be inebriated to make it through a day's work? In addition to risking death due to constant exposure to human remains in a state of putrefaction, there were others horrors to be experienced when attempting to bury too many bodies in one area, as one young gravedigger's story would attest..."One day I was trying the length of a grave to see if it was long and wide enough, and while I was there, the ground gave way and a body turned right over, and the two arms came and clasped me around the neck."Shiver!Want more? Google grave wax. I dare you.Like Mary Roach, Arnold manages to keep a light touch when telling even the darkest tales. There are splashes of humor, black though they may be, splattered throughout the book.And so, to keep things nice and cheery, I'll finish with the story of the panic that struck in 1664 when a comet appeared in the skies above London. In addition to the usual prognostications of imminent doom, citizens were treated to the sight of radical dissenter Solomon Eagle who ran naked through the streets with a pan of burning charcoal on his head, warning Londoners to repent their wicked ways.If only YouTube had been around then...
What do You think about Necropolis: London And Its Dead (2007)?
I enjoyed this. It's an area of history that is generally neglected but I found it really interesting. Why talk about dead people when you can discuss kings and queens?! It was good to find out where certain customs and funeral traditions originated. Sometimes Arnold jumped around a bit from subject to subject which could be confusing. I'm sure she started making a point about the problems of burying prisoners that she never finished! Or maybe I just missed it. It felt like while writing she would be struck by a certain point and go off on a tangent to talk about it, then (sometimes) come back to what she was originally saying. Having said that, it didn't put me off reading it and I still liked it.
—Kari
A fascinating look at how London has dealt with its dead through the ages, taking us from the Pagans and Romans, through the Middle Ages and the Victorians, up until modern times, and taking in numerous plagues and epidemics, a few fires and two World Wars, the death of Lady Di and the London bombings, while moving from outside the city, into its heart and then back out again. Informative, astonishing, gruesome and revealing, this book nearly managed to outdo my record of how many times I could turn to Nik with a "Listen to this!" - I think he was being bothered at least once a page (although he'd probably say it felt like more. He was trying to watch football, after all).Whether it be the charnel houses with their decorative skeletal chandeliers, the boisterous medieval graveyards and their town centre on a Saturday night atmosphere (complete with heavy drinking, fighting and regular deaths), the putrescent Victorian burial yards that actually killed the living, the drunken gravediggers, the exploding coffins and the showers of remains, the embalmed wives on display in living rooms, or the brides making 'grave clothes' for their potential future children, each page was bursting with jaw-dropping and frequently stomach-turning facts.Gladstone is quoted within: "Show me the manner in which a nation cares for its dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness, the tender mercies of its people, their loyalty to high ideals, and their regard for the laws of the land." In that case, Arnold shows us here that we don't have an awful lot to be proud of.**Also posted at Randomly Reading and Ranting**
—Lisa
Call me odd, but I do like graveyards.This book was a ripping read, I tore through, as the information is horrific and compelling, but written in a good balance of scholarly assessment and human interest - it's not a morbid taste for bones, but an undeniable human attraction to the slightly macabre.It feels as though the early London era is glossed over, as if the author wasn't as interested in the archaeological end of studies, or couldn't find enough first hand sources they wanted to use. This is a shame, as the parallels with Roman practices and then late Victorian are very interesting. The book may have been more honest if it simply covered early London in an introductory chapter, then really began from the plague eras.
—Lisa Ward
