Secret London- Secret Dead London

Ask anyone to name a famous person and then to say where they are buried and you are quite likely to hear the name of Karl Marx and the cemetery to find him in as Highgate. And they would be correct - they would be more correct to say Highgate East Cemetery though. But other than Marx and a few other famous figures, the final resting places of the famous, infamous and just really interesting remain largely unknown. For over 2,000 years people have lived and died in London and the city has a large number of cemeteries to cater for the huge numbers who have passed on during this time. Some graves are marked with big memorials made of marble and granite which are hard to miss. But there are many others with just a small headstone with a name engraved on it which relates to a life which remains fascinating to this day. This book covers many of the cemeteries in and around London. Some are perfectly and carefully laid out and looked after whilst others are overgrown and neglected. A few have become garden cemeteries. They all have stories to tell, not only about how they came about but also about their residents. There are far too many to include everyone famous or with an interesting story to tell but I have taken a selection of the grand including royalty, the tragic such as some of the victims of Jack the Ripper, war heroes throughout the ages and a selection of contemporary stars of stage, screen and music. A number of the latter group can be described by the oft-quoted "they died too young." But each of them has a story to tell. There is also a section on plague pits. Although the plague visited for more than 300 years there were two major outbreaks - the Black Death of 1346 and the Great Plague of 1665. But as it swept through Europe, Britain and London the death toll was astronomic. It has been estimated that it claimed the lives of over 100,000 Londoners in just seven months during 1665. There are more such sites within London than we are aware of and I have chosen eleven large and small plague pits to illustrate what it must have been like during the time of plague. Finally there is a short section on a problem which confronted the newly dead. And that is the subject of grave robbers or Resurrection Men as they became known. The authorities put a number of measures in place in order to stop this from happening which succeeded to a greater or less effect. We take a look at one such site still in existence, although rebuilt over the years. Death is inevitable but it is important not to lose the stories of the lives now gone.