The grave yards of London : being an exposition of the physical and moral consequences inseparably connected with our unchristian and pestilential custom of depositing the dead in the midst of the living : with the examinations of the author, upon this highly important subject, before a Select Committee of the House of Commons / by George Alfred Walker.

George Alfred Walker

Date:: 1841

Credit: The grave yards of London : being an exposition of the physical and moral consequences inseparably connected with our unchristian and pestilential custom of depositing the dead in the midst of the living : with the examinations of the author, upon this highly important subject, before a Select Committee of the House of Commons / by George Alfred Walker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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idols ol the heart’s best and purest affections,—here, thought I, may repose one who has had his cares, his anxieties—who, perchance, may have well fulfilled life’s duties, and who has tasted its pleasures and its sorrows,—here he sleeps as I must sleep; yet I could not but desire that I might have a better resting place—a Christian burial, St, Clement’s Church, Strand.—There is a vault under this church called the “Rector's Vault, the descent into which is in the aisle of the church near the communion table, and when opened the products of the decomposition of animal matter are so powerful, that lighted candles, passed through the opening into the vault, are in- stantly extinguished. The men at different times employed, have not dared to descend into the vault until two or three days had elapsed after it had been opened, during which period the windows of the church also were opened to admit the perflation of air from the street to occupy the place of the gas emitted;—thus a diluted poison is given in exchange from the dead to the living in one of the most fre- quented thoroughfares of the metropolis. The other vaults under- neath the church are also much cowded with dead. From some cause, at present doubtful, these vaults were discovered to be on fire upwards of fifty years ago; they continued burning for some days, and many bodies were destroyed. At the eastern side of this church a pump was formerly fixed, it has since been removed. The well was sunk in the year 1807, but the water had become so offensive, both to smell and taste, that it could not be used by the inhabitants, owing, most probably, to the infiltration of the dissolved products of human putrefaction. Graves certainly have been dug very near to this well, and the land springs have risen to within a few feet of the surface. St. Martin in the Fields.—The old burying ground adjoining the church has been broken up for the purpose of making improve- ments in the city of Westminster; the dead were disinterred, and their remains removed to vaults, called catacombs. Drury Lane Burying Ground belongs to the parish of St. Martin’s in the Fields. Many thousands of bodies have been here deposited. The substratum was, some years since, so saturated with dead, that the place “was shut up” for a period. The ground was subsequently raised to its present height—level with the first floor windows sur- rounding the place, and in this superstratum vast numbers of bodies have, up to this period, been deposited. A short time since a pit was dug (a very common practice here) in one corner of the ground, and in it many bodies were deposited at different periods, the top of the pit being covered only with boards. This ground is a most intolerable and highly dangerous nuisance to the entire neighbour- hood. Rather more than two years ago, in making three areas to the centre houses on the western side of this burying ground, many bodies were disturbed and mutilated. The inhabitants of the houses are frequently annoyed by the most disgusting and repulsive sights. Russell Court, Drury Lane.—This Burying Ground belongs to the parish of St. Mary-le-Strand. In its original state it was below the level of the adjoining ground ; now, the surface is on a line with the first floor windows, of the houses entirely surrounding this place. It has long been in a very disgusting condition, but within the last few months the surface has been “ cleaned up,” and the whole may now be called “the whited sepulchre.”

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