London Necropolis coffin tickets
-
-
Brookwood Cemetery (England)
This is one of our most frequent enquiries concerning this collection. These curio tickets are from a railway that was specifically built to take coffins from the London area to be buried in a new large cemetery or Necropolis in Brookwood, Surrey, as burial space in London had nearly run out. The London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company was formed in 1852 and trains ran from 1854. The line ran from central London to Brookwood. An Air Raid in 1941 destroyed much of the company’s infrastructure and it was decided in 1945 not to revive the company.
One unintentional advantage of the line meant that Golfers playing at the nearby West Hill Golf Course were said to dress as mourners and join the train and get off at the nearby station and walk to the golf course. The reason being, that tickets on the “coffin” train were cheaper than the conventional trains to Brookwood that were run by London and South Western!
Location: The Wingate Bett Transport Ticket Collection Vol. 152-87
