Playing Skittles with Skulls and Bones

The graveyards and burial-grounds of early nineteenth-century London, full to the brim with human remains, presented many a grisly spectacle. But there was a great reluctance to address the problem of the capital's overcrowded, stinking churchyards: clergymen wanted to retain their customary burial fees and the government was unwilling to interfere.

In this talk, Lee Jackson will explain the 'sanitary' origins of the Victorian cemetery, from the cholera epidemic of 1832 to the horrors of Enon Chapel, and the Spa Fields scandal of 1845.

He will focus on two little-known figures - George Carden, self-styled 'Founder of the system of ex-urban sepulture', and the burial reform agitator George Walker - explaining how, after decades of struggle, London finally obtained a decent burial for most of its citizens.