I'm a funeral director AND a railway enthusiast. Has there ever been a KZfaq video more up my alley? 🤣

This seems about right for London of that era. “We have a problem, we need a way to get the dead out of the city.” “TRAINS! The solution is always TRAINS!”

I have only just discovered Vicki's videos - they are fantastic! Keep it up. I am watching these videos in Canberra, Australia. There is an interesting side story regarding necropolis railways in this country. Sydney had a necropolis railway system which ran from Sydney Central Station to Rookwood Cemetery (yes, similar name), which is the largest cemetery in the southern hemisphere. There was a mausoleum station at Central and 4 stations at Rookwood, for each of the major denominations. Station No 1 was the Anglican station. The service closed in the 1940s, I think. The mausoleum station at Central still exists but is in poor condition. But in the 1950s Station No 1 was bought by the Anglican church, dismantled stone by stone, shipped 200 miles to Canberra and re-erected as All Saints Anglican Church. It is still in use as a church today.

I thought Vicki's wonky pronuncation was going to introduce a reference to the "The NecroPOLitan Line" ;-)

New for 2020, "All The Cemeteries! ".

Vicki you deserve your own Vicki Explores channel.

Vicki - always one to put the “fun” into “funereal”.

Excellent video. The south station exists as a monastery. The north station burnt down a while ago, and as someone else said, is just behind the fence in Railway Avenue. Come back for a wider investigation - happy to show Vicky (and Geoff) around.

I love the evil laugh followed by cough! Beautifully played! I hope that you threaten Geoff with a ride on the necropolis line if he doesn’t behave himself at home

Come on Vicki- you're a heritage professional. All editions of the 1:2,500 OS county series maps show enough detail to identify the branch line and associated structures. Even if LTM can't afford a decent GIS package there's still the free online services you can blag your way through with.

The bit where you were with the hedge was the first station which burned down in the early 1970's if you had gone across the road (Not a station) but a crossing you would have found the second station platforms still there at the end of the line. I have walked this line. I have walked disused railway lines all over the country but still think this is the most weird but somehow beautiful one.

South Western - as well as the trains, the passengers were late as well.

Great Episode, Thank you for the interesting Halloween link!! look forward to more Vicki Explores !

Really great video - these Vicki Explores are excellent - great (but not over the top) video production and there's a story in there. Well done

Have known about it for decades, but interesting to see more than just what you see as the train flies through the station. Thanks, Vicki

wow this is my favourite vicki explores yet!

The platforms at the North station are the low wall visible at 5:34. As noted below, to get to the South station, you continue on across the road (where the video ends) and through another part of the cemetery until you get to the Orthodox monastery, which is on the station site.

Necropolis railway and cemetery. And not a Ghost train in sight 👻🚂

I thought Hallowe'en signified the start of Christmas. According to the bloody shops, you'd think so.

You are walking alongside the remains (pun intended) of the northern platform at 5:34, I could have shown you the southern station too. You cant see it on this video, But the the platforms have dip in the middle to allow for the off loading of the coffins.

Vicki should make more videos, she's a great presenter.

The black diagonal line @4:17 is a public road, Cemetery Pales. Dead (!) straight for 1/2 mile between high brick walls. The road had a tendency to large puddles in the gutters and I sometimes drove through late at night. My headlights would reflect and project the shapes of the puddles up onto the walls, moving as I did, like white ghosts. Spooky.

Brookwood was one of seven cemeteries built around London when it was no longer required to bury people in consecrated ground. I live near Kensal Green Cemetery. It didn't have it's own railway but there was an entrance directly off the canal. A definite railway link is that Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father Marc are buried there.

Now that is a fascinating little piece of history. Too think that they had enough dead people to make a train viable. Amazing.

Nice one, Vicki. I'll have to get down there one day. I like the train whizzing through Surbiton @ 3:31!!!!

The line is still there at Waterloo. Used as a siding and you can see where it runs to the old station

Vicky, thank you, as always an interesting journey. San Francisco, as it turns out, had a funeral train to its cemetery suburb in Colma from 1902 to 1921, but our cemeteries are nowhere near as classy and character-filled as Brookwood.

the south platform is still there ,... awesome vid.. did not know there was an "old" train .. always thought that the one there now was the original station

5:29 - "Railway Avenue" - nice bit of Norfolk accent coming through ;)

Vicki, Thanks for the video. There were a couple of cemetery railways here in Australia. 1 in Newcastle NSW lasted until 1985. I did a (return) trip on it in 1982 when it was only used by visitors. In the Fawkner Cemetery, Melbourne, right beside a railway, they have on display a restored "hearse" carriage, used for the coffins. I have visited Brookwood, mainly for the wartime graves maintained by the CWGC.

Dear America: your Princess Blah costume won't protect you against spirits. I love your stuff, Vicki!

A busy branch-line with people dying to ride on it.

i rember when i was a child going to london one time to see gran normallay victoria but on this occasion it was waterloo i had seen an area fenced off with iron railings with old carrages andsteamtrain in it my father said it was the narcropolis railway to brookwood 1965 about

Great Video I have the city of London cemetery near again built when inner London run out of space. Sadly no railway although it runs down one side But does have the burial for the youngest VC given, this was awarded during ww1

My great grandad use to be a driver on the nacropolis railway he left after two months he said it was dead boring and none of the passages smiled! (Just like modern day London )

=) always a pleasure seeing you

At 5:24 you can see the original platform edge for the Northern Station below the fence, it isn’t where Vicki says they might be.

Well presented Vicki - I think you walked right past the North Station platform - at about 5:25. It has a hedge and chain link fence on top on top of it. There was only one branch line through the cemetery, calling first at the North Station (Nonconformist) then over the road (cemetery pales) and on to the South Station - Anglican. Though remains of the platforms can be seen both Stations are now gone, however the Chapel at the South Station still survives as the Orthodox Monastery of St Edward the Martyr. Many London Parishes set up new burial grounds in Brookwood Cemetery.

Hi Vicki, I live just down the road from Brookwood Cemetery and used to walk through it every day to the station. I bought a book about the cemetery a few years ago and it's a fascinating read. At 5:24 in your video, just behind the "Railway Avenue" sign is the brickwork of the North station Platform. The Station building burned down in the 1970s unfortunately. The South Station is situated across the road, about another 1/4 mile away. Great Video 👍

There's a tiny business park in the middle of Brookwood Cemetery, when working on site there I told my controller I was in the dead centre of London.

I love this. Stayed on Westminster Bridge Road last year and got to tell lots of people what the “station” was for - not for them! Also loved the Leake Street Arches art. Great to see where the railway went.

Brookwood! Here in Sydney we had funeral trains to our largest cemetery, Rookwood, back then called Rookwood Necropolis. Trains ran from 1864 to 1948 (by the end it was a mourners train, no coffins)...original Rookwood station is now a church in Canberra.

Today i learned something. . . Vicky cannot cackle! 😁 But i did not know about this railway system. Thanks Vicky!👍👍

This is a ghostbusters story in the making!

This was a treat, thank you very mucnh :)

Lovely Video, we've been meaning to take a look here for a while. All the more reason to now.

This is actually fascinating! Sydney had a similar set up, and you can still actually see the city terminus of the railway near to Central station, and one of the Cemetery stations was relocated when the branch closed and is now actually a church in Canberra!

UK had a rail line that served Brookwood cemetery in the 1800's, Australia says "good idea we'll run lines to Rookwood Cemetery XD On a side note, one of the chapels for the Sydney Mortuary Line was shipped to Canberra and became a quaint looking Anglican Church for a new suburb XD

With a wonderful vlog! Thank you :)

A very enjoyable watch, given the content.

I grew up in Farnborough and walked the track with my father in the 70s. Then the station buildings still existed and you could see marks left by the sleepers even though the tracks had been lifted. The north station was largely wooden and burned down shortly after I saw it.

If I remember correctly the Manor Park Cemetery in East London also had a railway. Both my grandparents are interred there. I own the plot as I'm the eldest living relative.

Thanks for the vid, I lived for years next to what was that station, and had no idea of its original, no one did. It was right next door to what was the post office.

if you street view the A322 at the right point you can see where the line ended behind the monastery

A good read by Andrew Martin is entitle 'The Necropolis Railway', the first in his Railway series of books.

We do know where the original Necropolis station was, it's on the 1893-1895 OS map - maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=19&lat=51.5009&lon=-0.1148&layers=163&right=BingHyb

Fascinating.

Interesting as always. The Montreal, Park & Island Ry had an interurban tram that performed this function to the Hawthorne-Dale Cemetary off a branch of their mainline around the turn of the last century. The mourners & deceased rode together in the same car...

Extraordinary, nay outstanding, video. The Necropolis Railway is a subject which fascinates me. More on it please. PS for future reference, it is pronounced "Ne-crop-olis not Necro-polis"

IIRC, it was Jago Hazzard who nicknamed it the Necropolitan Railway, which is absolutely what it should've been called. :)

Very interesting you are brilliant at doing this I love history thank you Vicky explores from Wolverhampton 👍👍

Adorei. Great work Vicki!

2:34. A parking space on the right! In Central London!

Excellent vid , so interesting. Thanks Vicki , keep exploring.

Really interesting video, Never knew nothing about this until now Thanks x

Vicki - may I wish you a very happy and safe SAMHUINN (not Halloween which is an American aberration). Samhuinn is the Celtic New year, when time stands still from 6pm on 31 October until 6am on 2 November; there is no 1 November in the Celtic Calendar. When the time stands still it is the time of Chaos, when the veil between the two worlds is at its thinnest. Happy Celtic New Year.

That was well spooky vicki

I believe that this railway also served the first legal crematorium in nearby Woking. I had to see off an old friend there earlier this year and it is similarly beautiful and tranquil.

Just down the road, and never been.... drove past about 15 mins ago!

You remember you were wondering where the platforms were? You showed the North station platform at 5:23, right behind the Railway Avenue sign. There's a society called the Brookwood Cemetery Society and they have a page devoted to the London Necropolis Railway www.tbcs.org.uk/cemetery_railway.html and there's a Wikipedia page about it too en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookwood_Cemetery#Necropolis_Railway which shows a map of it. I went there myself a few years ago and you're right, it's a very peaceful place

Same in Sydney Australia, special platform, at 1a, catch the funeral train, straight to Rookwood Cemetery, same name without the letter "B", is no longer used but still all there at Central station.

Another interesting branch line ran from Brookwood Station till roughly the Second World War. It left the main line just after the station and bore northwards. It was only used during the month of July when the NRA Imperial Meeting was held ( and is still held) at Bisley Camp. The train at the time being known as the Bisley Bullet.

If you know where to look you can see, from passing trains, the embankment of the branch into the cemetery.

great episode!

Great video, always wanted to know more about this.

I have read about the establishment of the cemeteries and trains elsewhere. The description of the effort to bury the dead within established churchyards in the city was repulsive to read about let alone consider people lived around it. Thanks for bringing this video. Yet another place to explore and see the statuary.

Thank you for another interesting "Vicky Explores". I had heard of the Necropolis Railway but never knew where it was.

This is so fascinating! I only knew about the Westminster Necropolis building from a walks of London book I've got. And having explored Leake Street tunnel a few times I had absolutely no idea of its grim origins!

That was so interesting. Thanks Vicki.

Well done Vicki another informative video i knew nothing about look forward to the next one as i now follow this channel and geoff's one. Marc in Bletchley Towers

OMG I love this video. Kudos to Vicki!

Deadly video! Well done!

Yay! More Vicki Explores!

Enjoyed it~ Thanks:)

at 5.30 the platforms were visible under the bushes

Very well presented Vicki! Curiousity got the better of me and I had a look on Google Maps, aswell as a diagram of the old railway. Where you mentioned the low walls looking like platforms - you're not quite far enough along yet! That's where there was a crossing point. You were definitely walking the path of the railway, but if you'd have continued through those gates, over the half-roundabout, then down Cyprians Ave, there would be a bit of a clearing (car parking area) on the left. In the far corner of this, you'd find where the railway continued. It continued along the tree line, all the way to the Saint Edward Brotherhood Monastery, which the platform sat behind - you can still see evidence of this on Google Maps, but whether the platform is still there I've no idea. An old photo suggests it was definitely still there in 1976. Have a look here on Google Maps - you can see the curved route through the trees to the Monastery. If you zoom in on the Monastery, you'll see the tell-tale parallel lines of platforms right above it: goo.gl/maps/is1DE6BxU2gMyPnY8 Here's a photo of the Monastery from 1976, taken from the railway by the looks of things, just NE of the Monastery: www.tbcs.org.uk/railway_2.jpg Just some info in case you wished to re-visit!

Great video - both spooky and educational.

Are you going to do a similar Explore of the Kings Cross - New Southgate Cemetery line?

That video was very interesting Vicki, and I really enjoy the video.

Great video. Thanks.

5:47 no, but 5:34 does. I beleive this was the north station, the south station & platform is more intact according to the web and google earth and is at the Monastery This is a famous story but is is not alone: there was such a railway in The Netherlands too

Happy Halloween 2097, whoever reads this then. Plus, if the Ghostbusters ever filmed in the UK, the fire house would definitely be Westminster Bridge Road building 😂

The Scout Association had or maybe still has a campsite at Brookwood, it was supplied with firewood by local coffin makers, they were triangular shaped off cuts of Oak, Mahogany and other exotic timber. My outstanding memory of camping there is when it was our Troops turn to empty the chemical 'Elsan' toilets into the site septic tank.

National Library of Scotland Map shows the branch at Brookwwod maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=51.3026&lon=-0.6305&layers=168&right=BingHyb

So interesting - thank you!

In addition to different classes of carriage, Catholics and Jews were also separated from the Anglican passengers/bodies. Check out Andrew Martin's first Jim Stringer novel, The Necropolis Railway.

Stockholm has a subway station for the Forest Cemetery (a UNESCO World Heritage site). The cemetery is fills the area to the SE of the station, another smaller cemetery to the NE, but there's enough housing on the western side of the station that it's run like any other subway station! Also, built in the early/mid 1900s, not 1800s. In a city smaller than London was when the Necropolis Railway was built. So, not as amazing as the London one really, but stil worth a visit :)

Fascinating!

So it does exist. I thought it was a fictional railway in a Sherlock Holmes fanfiction

This is a late upload or a very early one. Not sure which? Merry Christmas though! ;o)