LONDON
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A website page for Brompton Cemetery is obtainable on the Royal Parks Agency website.
Originally
the West of London and Westminster Cemetery it covers 40 acres with
about 230,000 burials. It has an usually formal layout with a classical
chapel and arcades designed by Benjamin Baud. The cost proved too much
for the shareholders who welcomed the government's intervention under
the Metropolitan Interments Act 1850. This act allowed the government
to purchase any of the London cemeteries for reasons of health. However
with the belief that huge sums could be payable to shareholders and
burial rights owners in compensation, the government decided to change
the law again to prevent such a situation. The Burial Act 1852 was
passed to repeal the former Act but the purchase of Brompton was so far
advanced it was allowed to proceed. Brompton remains the only
nationalised public cemetery and is under the care of the Royal Parks
Agency.
There are many famous and influential people buried there
including Dr John Snow who promoted the idea that water from the pump
in Soho was the cause of the cholera outbreak. Another famous person is
Francis Lee Bridell the artist.