Once you know that London is just one giant grave, it’s very difficult to look at its streets in the same way. In Necropolis: London and Its Dead, Catharine Arnold charts how the metropolis treated the dead, from Roman burial grounds through to the outpouring of grief that surrounded Princess Diana’s funeral.
It is not an exhaustive account. Arnold has obviously picked the areas that interested her and this gives the book an informal and engaging style. Her enthusiasm for the subject is infectious and makes the reader want to discover more about the dead characters who she brings to life so vividly. There are walk-on parts for famous Londoners, such as Virginia Woolf, and also those for whom the tide of fame has receded, like prize fighter Tom Sayer whose funeral procession was headed by a lion. I was particularly captivated by the introduction to Jane Webb, an early nineteenth-century writer who wrote The Mummy’s Tale. The novel is set in 2126 and includes prototypes for espresso machines, air-conditioning, and ‘a communication system that permitted instant world dissemination of news.’ Clearly, she had foreseen the rise of the blog.
A large part of the book focuses on the Victorian era, which is greatly pleasing to me, but might be a disappointment to students of other periods. However, I don’t think anyone could fail to be fascinated by the story of the Necropolis Railway which carried coffins from a private station at Waterloo and delivered them straight to the Brookwood Cemetery grounds in suburban Woking. My only gripe is with some of the factual inaccuracies, such as stating that Mrs Henry Wood was married to Sir Henry Wood. He was a plain old ‘Mr’ and a banker, rather than the famous conductor. Also, I really wouldn’t describe the novelist as a “prototype feminist”.
Those issues aside, the book is never less than compelling and Arnold embraces a wealth of fascinating detail in a surprisingly slim volume. I’m looking forward to hearing Kirsty’s views on Bedlam: London and Its Mad.
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