A few weeks ago I posted on the macabre history of graveyard overcrowding in 19th century London, and the creation of Highgate Cemetery. There was one story embroiled in that strange history that deserved its own post, and here it is. Warning, some of the descriptions are of a graphic nature. With the population of London more than doubling during the late 18th and early 19th century, the space for burials, had run out. Left to the parish churches to resolve the problem, this had led to a dangerous overcrowding of burials. Stories from the period, talk of mourners witnessing their loved ones graves being dug, whereupon another was discovered, if the grave was within five, the remains were stomped into the ground to provide space for a new burial on top. Older burials were removed and cast aside to allow space, with coffins burned for firewood. This overcrowding had led parish churches to simply pile the dead into their church basements, and the worst offending of these was Enon Chapel. Opened in 1822, in the poorer area of London, near Clements Lane in The Strand, Enon Chapel’s beginnings in having been built over an open sewer were grim. Serving a poor area, the chapel’s basement became the internment of the area’s dead, with thin boards, and thinner layers of soil separating the decomposing dead from the living who attended the church above. Its minister Mr W. Howse, capitalizing on the lack of burial space in the area, took to filling the basement with the dead to its ceiling, and to maximize the space having the coffins smashed up and used as firewood. When the dead could no longer be crammed into the space, parts of the bodies were discarded into the sewer, (Continued in the comments) #gothicstories #gothictales #macabreart #macabre #macabreartist #londonhistory #historyoflondon #victoriangothic #victoriangothicstyle #regencygothic #gothicvictorian #grusome #thestrandlondon #victorianlondon #burialground #cemetary #cemeteries #cemeteriesandgraveyards #terriblehistory #gothichistory #horriblehistory #corpse #burialchamber #19thcentury #19thcenturyhistory #darkhistory #strangehistory #victorian #victorianhistory #victorianstyle https://www.instagram.com/p/CPi1mwpH1u2/?utm_medium=tumblr
