POTENTIAL SITE # 2: The Lower Bay Station & The Guild Inn
In my research, I came across the London Necropolis Railway Station(enter it in the search engine to find the post). The station was a feature in the British city that provided a subway service for coffins and mourners that brought them to Brookwood Cemetery, which was 25 miles away. It was convenient for people and came out of a need for hygienic spaces for death. It is now out of service.
Inspired by this precedent, I was thinking of using the abandoned LOWER BAY STATION, and creating a similar service. The station was shortly closed to the public only months after it was built, but it shows up from time to time in films and on TV, often dressed up to look like New York or elsewhere.
Anyway, creating a similar service is the idea. The Lower Bay Station would be the reminder of mortality in the city, and the cemetery that the railway terminates would still manage to keep the dead far from the hustle and bustle of the city, but still create that connection between the living and the dead. How well that is done, however, is rather debatable.
The termination of the railway should be in a bucolic setting that is fitting for the eternal rest of souls. I have looked at reusing the also abandoned GUILD INN (near the Scarborough Bluffs) if I go with this idea.
This aerial shot of the Guild Inn shows its vast grounds and its peaceful lake-side setting. The main house was built in 1914 and had several additions to it since, including a six-storey addition built in 1965 when the place was a lakeshore resort and artisans' community.
In my head, this portion of the project would be the main funerary complex, containing the chapels, waiting rooms, crematorium, columbarium, and, of course, the burial grounds.