The Corpse in the Garden: Burial, Health, and the Environment in Nineteenth-Century London

Abstract

Between 1875 and 1900 advocates of green space in London converted nearly a hundred graveyards into public gardens or playgrounds. This article examines why and how this transformation in urban land use occurred. Incorporating changes in ideas about the body, disease, environment, and religion, it argues that a radically new understanding of the corpse and of burial emerged in Britain during the late nineteenth century. Instead of regarding the disintegration of the corpse with horror and trying to arrest it, many came to see the process as essential to the balance of nature. They argued that the planting of grass, plants, and trees was necessary not only to purify the air of unhealthy gases, but also to speed the transformation of the human body into its constituent elements and thus complete the circulation of matter between the animal and vegetable worlds. Although some critics maintained that the creation of recreation areas in burial grounds was both disrespectful and unhealthy, the proponents of graveyard conversion secured both popular support and parliamentary sanction for their efforts.