Houses for the Dead: The Provision of Mortuaries in London, 1843–1889

Abstract

Edwin Chadwick's supplementary sanitary report of 1843 claimed that around 20,000 deaths took place in London each year among families who occupied only a single room. For the period between death and burial, which could be a week or more, these families shared that room with a decomposing corpse. Chadwick recommended that public mortuaries should be provided, where corpses could be securely and decently lodged until they could be buried. This article examines the gradual process of establishing such buildings in London in the period between 1843 and the formation of the London County Council in 1889, and the limited success achieved in encouraging their use.