London Necropolis Company - Developments and Difficulties

Developments and Difficulties

The success of the LNC relied on taking over all, or at least a significant portion, of the burials of London's dead. However, while the Metropolitan Interment Amendment Act 1852 had repealed Chadwick's scheme for two very large cemeteries near London, it had also permitted London's parishes to make their own arrangements for the burial of their dead. Each parish could make arrangements with the cemetery of its choosing, or use money from the rates to create their own cemeteries. The financial mismanagement and internal disputes within the LNC had delayed the opening of Brookwood Cemetery by 18 months, and during this period new cemeteries nearer London had opened or were nearing completion. While some parishes did choose Brookwood as their burial site, many preferred either to make arrangements with less distant cemeteries, or to buy land on the outskirts of London and open their own suburban cemeteries. Concerns over the financial irregularities and the viability of the scheme had led to only 15,000 of the 25,000 LNC shares being sold, severely limiting the company's working capital and forcing it to take out large loans. Buying the land from Lord Onslow, compensating local residents for the loss of rights over Woking Common, draining and landscaping the portion to be used for the initial cemetery, and building the railway lines and stations were all expensive undertakings. With far fewer burial contracts with London parishes than had been anticipated, by the time Brookwood Cemetery opened in November 1854 the LNC was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Recognising their financial predicament, the LNC lobbied Parliament for a new Act of Parliament to allow the venture to survive. On 23 July 1855 the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Amendment Act 1855 received Royal Assent. This Act released the LNC from those compulsory purchases of land which had been mandated by the 1852 Act but had not yet been completed, easing the immediate financial burden. It also allowed a ten-year window for the LNC to sell certain parts of the land bought from Lord Onslow which were not required for the cemetery, to provide a source of income.

Although the 1855 Act permitted the LNC to sell land, this proved difficult. Of the 2,200-acre (3.4 sq mi; 8.9 km2) site, around 700 acres (1.1 sq mi; 2.8 km2) were occupied by the initial Necropolis site and the adjacent reserve site, and a further 200 acres (0.31 sq mi; 0.81 km2) retained their common land rights and could not be developed in any way, rendering them worthless to prospective buyers. While this left 1,300 acres (2.0 sq mi; 5.3 km2) theoretically able to be sold, the Brookwood site had been chosen for its remoteness and there were few prospective buyers. While 214 acres (0.33 sq mi; 0.87 km2) were bought by the government as sites for prisons and a lunatic asylum, the LNC struggled to sell the remainder. By the time the ten-year window for land sales expired in 1865, only 346 acres (0.54 sq mi; 1.4 km2) had been sold.

With the majority of the surplus lands still unsold, as the ten-year window expired the LNC successfully petitioned for a further five-year extension. The LNC was by this time in serious financial difficulties, and dependent on loans from its own directors to settle outstanding debts. The business had been established on the basis that the cemetery would handle between 10,000 and 50,000 burials per year, but the number never exceeded 4,100 and over its first 20 years of operations averaged just 3,200. As the five-year extension expired the financial difficulties remained, and under pressure from shareholders the London Necropolis & National Mausoleum Amendment Act 1869 was passed. This removed all restrictions on land sales, other than within the existing cemetery and the adjacent reserve site. Despite the releasing of restrictions in the 1869 Act, land sales remained disappointing. By 1887 less than half the surplus land had been sold, much of it at very low prices.