Necropolis

Necropolis
Author: Catharine Arnold
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2008-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1847394930

From Roman burial rites to the horrors of the plague, from the founding of the great Victorian cemeteries to the development of cremation and the current approach of metropolitan society towards death and bereavement -- including more recent trends to displays of collective grief and the cult of mourning, such as that surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales -- NECROPOLIS: LONDON AND ITS DEAD offers a vivid historical narrative of this great city's attitude to going the way of all flesh. As layer upon layer of London soil reveals burials from pre-historic and medieval times, the city is revealed as one giant grave, filled with the remains of previous eras -- pagan, Roman, medieval, Victorian. This fascinating blend of archaeology, architecture and anecdote includes such phenomena as the rise of the undertaking trade and the pageantry of state funerals; public executions and bodysnatching. Ghoulishly entertaining and full of fascinating nuggets of information, Necropolis leaves no headstone unturned in its exploration of our changing attitudes to the deceased among us. Both anecdotal history and cultural commentary, Necropolis will take its place alongside classics of the city such as Peter Ackroyd's LONDON.

Crypts of London

Crypts of London
Author: Malcolm Johnson
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2013-12-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0750956623

After the devastation of 1666, the Church of England in the City of London was given fifty-one new buildings in addition to the twenty-four that had survived the Great Fire. During the next hundred years others were built in the two cities of London and Westminster, most with a crypt as spacious as the church above. This book relates the amazing stories of these spaces, revealing an often surprising side to life – and death – inside the churches of historic London. The story of these crypts really began when, against the wishes of architects such as Wren and Vanbrugh, the clergy, churchwardens and vestries decided to earn some money by interring wealthy parishioners in their crypts. By 1800 there were seventy-nine church crypts in London, filled with the last remains of Londoners both illustrious and ordinary. Interments in inner London ended in the 1850s; since then, fifty-two crypts have been cleared, and five partially cleared – in each case resulting in the gruesome business of moving human remains. Today, many crypts have a new life as chapels, restaurants, medical centres and museums. With rare illustrations throughout, this fascinating study reveals the incredible history hidden beneath the churches of our capital. Malcolm Johnson is a retired priest, and has a PhD from King's College, London. His well-received St Martin-in- the-Fields was published by Phillimore in 2005.

Alive in Necropolis

Alive in Necropolis
Author: Doug Dorst
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2008-07-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101014946

A "dark and funny debut"(Seattle-Times) about a young police officer struggling to maintain a sense of reality in a town where the dead outnumber the living. Colma, California, the "cemetery city" serving San Francisco, is the resting place of the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Wyatt Earp, and William Randolph Hearst. It is also the home of Michael Mercer, a by-the-book rookie cop struggling to settle comfortably into adult life. Instead, he becomes obsessed with the mysterious fate of his predecessor, Sergeant Wes Featherstone, who spent his last years policing the dead as well as the living. As Mercer attempts to navigate the drama of his own daily life, his own grip on reality starts to slip-either that, or Colma's more famous residents are not resting in peace as they should be.

Necropolis

Necropolis
Author: Basil Copper
Publisher: 20th Century
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781939140500

"A feverish gaslight gothic that's as rich in Sherlock Holmes-like atmosphere as it is in ghoulish doings." - Kirkus Reviews "A dark, exotic Gothic thriller . . . Excellent!" - Booklist "A gothic mystery in the truest sense. . . . Copper has written in the grand tradition of A. Conan Doyle and created a spellbinding narrative of mystery and suspense." - The Press-Courier Set in an alternate Victorian London, where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are not just fictional characters, Basil Copper's Necropolis (1980) is a tale of mystery and intrigue worthy of Arthur Conan Doyle or Wilkie Collins. Private detective Clyde Beatty, a rival of the great Holmes, has been hired by the lovely Angela Meredith to inquire into her father's suspicious death. As Beatty's investigation unfolds, the danger intensifies: more murders ensue, and attempts are made on his life. It is clear there is more to Mr. Meredith's death than meets the eye, and it may have something to do with the brazen robbery of a fortune in gold bullion. The clues lead Beatty to the eerie Brookwood Cemetery, where fatal secrets lie hidden in the catacombs beneath a city of the dead. . . . This edition of Copper's chilling Victorian Gothic mystery is the first in more than three decades and includes the original illustrations by Stephen E. Fabian and a new introduction by Stephen Jones. Copper's tale of Lovecraftian horror, The Great White Space (1974) is also available from Valancourt Books.

Necropolis

Necropolis
Author: Kathryn Olivarius
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2022-04-19
Genre: HISTORY
ISBN: 0674241053

Introduction: A rising necropolis -- Patriotic fever -- Danse macabre -- Immunocapital -- Public health, private acclimation -- Denial, delusion, and disunion -- Incumbent arrogance -- Epilogue: Fever and folly.

Necropolis City of the Dead

Necropolis City of the Dead
Author: Mark Davis
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2015-03-15
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 1445635062

A fascinating history of Undercliffe Victorian Cemetery - 'works of art', created as much for the living as they were for the dead.

Necropolis (The Gatekeepers #4)

Necropolis (The Gatekeepers #4)
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2012-04-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0545295254

The stakes get higher in #1 NYT bestselling author Anthony Horowitz's latest masterpiece.As the fourth novel in the spellbinding Gatekeepers series begins, the world is under the greatest threat it's ever known. The evil corporation Nightrise has amassed an immense amount of power . . . and the devastating force of the Old Ones is about to be unleashed around the globe. To stop this from happening, Matt and three of the Gatekeepers head to Hong Kong--not just the modern city of skyscrapers and wealth, but the secretive underworld beneath. In Hong Kong they will meet the final Gatekeeper, a girl named Scarlet, whose fate is inextricably joined to their own....

London: City of the Dead

London: City of the Dead
Author: David Brandon
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2022-06-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1803991631

London: City of the Dead is a groundbreaking account of London's dealing with death, covering the afterlife, execution, bodysnatching, murder, fatal disease, spiritualism, bizarre deaths and cemeteries. Taking the reader from Roman London to the 'glorious dead' of the First World War, this is the first systematic look at London's culture of death, with analysis of its customs and superstitions, rituals and representations. The authors of the celebrated London: The Executioner's City (Sutton, 2006) weave their way through the streets of London once again, this time combining some of the capital's most curious features, such as London's Necropolis Railway and Brookwood Cemetery, with the culture of death exposed in the works of great writers such as Dickens. The book captures for the first time a side of the city that has always been every bit as fascinating and colourful as other better known aspects of the metropolis. It shows London in all its moods - serious, comic, tragic and heroic-and celebrates its robust acceptance of the only certainty in life.

Victorian Cemeteries and the Suburbs of London

Victorian Cemeteries and the Suburbs of London
Author: Gian Luca Amadei
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2021-12-19
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1000521516

This book explores how Victorian cemeteries were the direct result of the socio-cultural, economic and political context of the city, and were part of a unique transformation process that emerged in London at the time. The book shows how the re-ordering of the city’s burial spaces, along with the principles of health and hygiene, were directly associated with liberal capital investments, which had consequences in the spatial arrangement of London. Victorian cemeteries, in particular, were not only a solution for overcrowded graveyards, they also acted as urban generators in the formation London’s suburbs in the nineteenth century. Beginning with an analysis of the conditions that triggered the introduction of the early Victorian cemeteries in London, this book investigates their spatial arrangement, aesthetics and functions. These developments are illustrated through the study of three private Victorian burial sites: Kensal Green Cemetery, Highgate Cemetery and Brookwood Cemetery. The book is aimed at students and researchers of London history, planning and environment, and Victorian and death culture studies.