Full Circle on the London Underground

Funeral Trains & coffins on the Tube

On what might be the hottest day of the year so far in London, I thought I'd brighten your day with a post about coffin transportation on the London Underground.

Did you know that Victorian Prime Minister W E Gladstone and Dr Barnardo were the only two people to have their coffins transported by Tube? This is pretty ironic as Gladstone was on the private opening of the London Underground in 1863, making him one of the very first people to travel on the Tube.

Little did he know that in 1898 he would be making another journey on it - in his coffin.

However, I learnt from one of my colleagues that railways in London were used to carry coffins quite often in Victorian times. Brookwood cemetary over 25 miles from Central London had its own private railway running through it which would carry both coffins and mourners, by the London & South Western Railway.

"The idea of using the railways to link London to the new rural cemeteries had been in the air for some years when Sir Richard Broun presented his plan, but not everyone was convinced. Many thought the clamour and bustle they associated with train travel would not suit the dignity demanded of a Christian funeral." However he managed to covince the powers that be and the service started operating from 13 November 1854 when the Cemetery opened to the public.


"Necropolis" terminus by by R~P~M
There was even a private "Necropolis" terminus just outside Waterloo station between York Street and Westminster Bridge Road. "The funeral trains ran from this private station, down the railway company's main line, and was then reversed into the Cemetery grounds at Brookwood. The trains ran once a day, assuming that funerals were booked to take place. The Sunday service ceased after October 1900. Thereafter the trains operated largely on an 'as required' basis. By the 1930s they were running at most twice a week. The service was never reinstated after the Second World War, and the track in the Cemetery was removed c1947-48."

"In the Cemetery grounds two private stations were provided, one for each main portion of the burial ground. 'North' station served the Nonconformist sections (nearest the main railway line), whilst 'South' station served the Anglican sections (close to the A322). After calling at North Station, the railway crossed Cemetery pales (the road which runs through the Cemetery grounds) on a level crossing."

Apparently if you're feeling particularly ghoulish or generally interested, you can follow the track-bed of the railway through the grounds, and there are also guided walks during the course of the year. Check out this site for more on this particular cemetery railway line. My colleague, Phill, also sent me a link to a feature from Fortean Times on the Brookwood Necropolis Railway, which apparently was the world's first funeral railway.

Quite a few Tubes pass cemeteries now (me and Neil did took pictures at St Patrick's Roman Catholic cemetery - pictured above - last year), but its certainly amazing to think that trains once carried the dead and their mourning families. Thanks Phill, and if anyone else has any more ghoulish stories about the Tube or railways in London, email me and if I haven't already covered them I'll blog them in due course.

Reading on the London Underground

Would I read over your shoulder on the Tube?

Travelling into work yesterday, someone sat next to me who was reading something far more interesting than me. I was in the middle of an old Book Group book Small Island, whereas he was reading a programme idea for a new reality makeover TV show starring those "fashion gurus" Trinny & Susannah. I couldn't tear my eyes away from it.

It sounded like a mixture of twosome's "What Not To Wear", with added stuff from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and "Testdrive My Girlfriend" and "Decorate my Antique Relationship Extreme Celebrity Sudoku Challenge UK". Trinny & Susannah or T & S as they were described in the "treatment" (spot the trendy meeja term) - would turn up at a couple's house and give them advice on how to makeover each other with 60% of the advice on clothes and 40% on their relationship.

It will be interesting to see if it ever makes it to TV. But it made me have a quick look at what other people around were reading on the Tube, to see if anything they were reading had that quality of being more interesting than my own stuff.


A girl opposite me on the Piccadilly Line was reading a diary written in some sort of Arabic looking script. Her friend was reading a paper for a university degree on auditing or something similar. After a while they started comparing notes.

A guy and a woman were studying an A-Z. A Sikh guy was reading a book with more Arabic looking typefaces.


Further down a woman was reading a book with a cryptic looking cover.


I know it's not just me who occasionally reads over people's shoulders. In fact when I got down to reading my copy of Small Island again, I could feel that the woman next to me was reading it over my shoulder too.

So what are you reading on the Tube right now? Would I feel compelled to read it over your shoulder? Or do you just read Metro or another paper?

Late Night London Underground

Tube open later from next year

You may have heard that finally Sheriff Ken has decreed that the London Underground will be open for an extra hour on Friday and Saturday nights until 1am from May 2007. This is after a public consultatation which attracted 54,000 responses, with the majority in favour of the late night service. However, as a compromise this means that on Saturday mornings trains will start running from 0630 rather than 0530.

As a bit of a night owl, I'm all for the later openings but "The proposals raised fears that shift workers and those catching flights from Heathrow would be affected.."

However, Ken Livingstone feels that the compromise works "This package ensures the Tube runs later on Friday and Saturday nights whilst protecting the needs of early morning commuters."

An opposing view came from Justin Bowden, the GMB union's senior London organiser, who said there should be consultations with morning employees such as cleaning and retail staff and NHS workers.

"It is not right to rob Peter of his train to take him to work to enable Paul to socialise later at the weekend. Both demands need to be accommodated," he said.

The changed timetable will mean that people can stay out longer and boost London's "late night economy" (pubs, clubs & eateries). British Transport Police apparently are gearing up to cope with the extra "business". Some taxi drivers will get a bit miffed. Also if you have a very early morning flight you might have to find an alternative route, and there is the issue of the Saturday morning staff.

But what do you think? Are you generally in favour or do you agree with Justin Bowden's robbing Peter to let Paul play analogy?

Hickory Road Poirot Competition Results

And the winner is......

Loads of you entered the quiz to guess the name of the real tube station where the fictional "Hickory Road", from an episode of Poirot, was filmed. The vast majority of you chose Morden.......

and you were right!

I suppose if it's a station that you are familiar with, the green and white tiles were a bit of a giveaway.


To someone like me who never ventures very far south on the Northern Line (the less time I spend on the Misery Line the better), it wasn't so obvious and Neil visited Morden to take a picture of the lines which along with the tiles mean we can definitively say Morden


compared to Neil's picture:


Anyway 24 of you made the correct guess and Neil's paperclip selection went into play


And the winner is Jamesthegill - so congratulations James, you win a book of 53 "Old Fashioned Luggage Labels" stickers.

There was also another prize to come up with the funniest caption for the picture below where you have to guess what Damian Lewis is saying to his girlfriend on the Tube. I very much liked Fimb's - Damian Lewis strokes the seat behind his lady love..

"Darling, this material is simply divine. Do you think they would notice if we took some to make into a pencil case?"

and Dmitri's "Hey, there is Annie's granny taking a picture of your shoes" guesses.

But in the end went for Michelle's "I saw the way you looked at that funny little Belgian, would it help if I grew a moustache?"


So Michelle wins the photo frame / fridge magnet in the style of one of the ticket booths around at the time.

Well done to everyone who entered and there's still some time to enter the London Underground Tie quiz. Have fun.

Welcome from Australia

My "morning" Australian Radio Interview

Just wanted to say a quick "Hi" if you've come to the site from listening to this morning's "Life Matters" show on ABC Radio National and Radio Australia (which was actually 11pm last night for me). I must thank the presenter Richard Aedy for being a great interviewer and making me sound far more awake than I was. Also it was refreshing to hear him say "arse" on a breakfast show, and also read the sign about "Passengers standing clear from the edge or they may get sucked off".

When we were talking about public transport being a great leveller, with all sorts of people travelling on it, he told me that Margaret Thatcher once said, that "Any man over the age of 30 who travels on a bus should be considered a failure". More proof, if it was needed, that Thatcher really is a dotty old mare.

Amongst other things, we also rattled on about commuter pigeons (sorry I forgot to mention Brian's blog), buskers, Albanian killer mice and Tube drivers' announcements. If you'd like to listen, visit this page from Life Matters and you'll see the links to download an mp3 podcast or listen to it on RealPlay or Windows Media. It's at 39.32 minutes into the broadcast.

Richard will be looking at other public transport systems from around this world this week, and tomorrow the focus will be on the New York Subway and how many babies have been born on the subway there! Cheers again Richard.