Brookwood Cemetery

Brookwood Cemetery
Name	Brookwood Cemetery
Established	1852
Country	England
Location	Woking, Surrey
Coordinates	51.3167°N 0.6167°W
Type	Public, municipal and private
Size	500 acres
Owner	The London Necropolis Company; later Brookwood Cemetery Company
Notable	See article text

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery is a large burial ground in Woking, Surrey, established in the mid-19th century to address burial shortages in London. Founded by the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company and served by the London Necropolis Railway, the site became one of the largest cemeteries in Europe and contains diverse denominational, private and military burial plots. Over time Brookwood has been associated with prominent figures from Victorian literature, British politics, the First World War, the Second World War, and global Anglican and nonconformist communities.

History

The cemetery was created after the Burial Act 1852 and the initiatives of businessmen including Richard Broun and William Cubitt under the aegis of the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company. Designed to relieve overcrowding in Highgate Cemetery, Kensal Green Cemetery and Brompton Cemetery, Brookwood was linked by the specially-built London Necropolis Railway to Waterloo Station and served by funerary trains until the Second World War. During the late 19th century expansion, the site absorbed sections for Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, Judaism and nonconformist denominations, while also hosting private chapels designed by architects influenced by Sir Arthur Blomfield and contemporaries. Ownership transitions involved the original Necropolis Company, sales after the Great Depression, and acquisitions by companies linked to St Pancras and regional landholders in the 20th century.

Layout and Features

Brookwood occupies approximately 500 acres of mixed heathland and landscaped grounds with layout principles common to Victorian garden cemeteries influenced by designers associated with John Claudius Loudon and contemporaries. Distinct sections include extensive Anglican plots with consecrated ground, separate Roman Catholic sections, a large Jewish cemetery with denominational divisions, and Muslim burial areas. The cemetery contains chapels, mausolea, catacombs, and a network of roads once traversed by the London Necropolis Railway branch line and associated spur lines. Important features include monumental sculpture, funerary architecture reflecting Victorian and Edwardian styles, landscaped avenues inspired by Kew Gardens-era planting schemes, and memorials erected by organizations such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Royal British Legion.

Notable Burials

Brookwood is the resting place of a broad cross-section of cultural, scientific and political figures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Among those interred are literary and artistic figures linked to Victorian literature, engineers and industrialists associated with the Industrial Revolution, and politicians active in the eras of Benjamin Disraeli and William Ewart Gladstone. The cemetery contains graves of medical pioneers connected to Guy's Hospital and St Bartholomew's Hospital, architects who worked with George Gilbert Scott, and performers associated with Sadler's Wells and the Royal Opera House. Military leaders and decorated veterans from the Crimean War, Boer War, First World War and Second World War are buried here, alongside business leaders from the Great Eastern Railway and financiers involved with the Bank of England.

Military Sections and War Graves

Brookwood contains significant military sections including plots for soldiers from the First World War and the Second World War, managed in part by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. There is a large concentration of war graves for servicemen from the British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force, as well as sections for Commonwealth forces including personnel from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. The cemetery also includes war graves for foreign nationals and interments associated with the Iraq War and other 20th-century conflicts. Memorials commemorate those lost at sea associated with the Merchant Navy and casualties of maritime actions such as the Battle of Jutland.

Ownership and Management

Originally operated by the London Necropolis and National Mausoleum Company, Brookwood later passed through corporate changes involving land companies, municipal authorities and private operators. Management has required coordination with national bodies such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, diocesan authorities from the Church of England, and denominational boards for Roman Catholicism and Judaism. Conservation and restoration efforts have involved heritage organizations including English Heritage and local government partners in Woking Borough Council, with funding and planning input from voluntary groups and trusts linked to cemetery preservation movements tracing back to the Victorian era.

Cultural References and Media Appearances

Brookwood has featured in literature, film and television, often invoked in works dealing with Victorian literature, funerary customs and war memory. It appears as a setting or reference point in novels by authors influenced by Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and later 20th-century writers engaging with World War I remembrance. Filmmakers and producers from the British Film Institute era have used the cemetery as a location, and its imagery has been used in documentaries by broadcasters such as the BBC and in period dramas set in the Edwardian and Victorian periods. Brookwood also figures in histories of British railways, particularly in narratives concerning the London Necropolis Railway and the development of funeral transport networks.

Category:Cemeteries in Surrey Category:Woking