The Metropolitan Sepulchre was a massive pyramidal necropolis proposed for construction in Primrose Hill in London in the 19th century as a way of addressing the shortage of burial space in the London area. Designed by the architect Thomas Willson, it would have been 90 stories high, and capable of holding up to five million dead.[1][2] The 18-acre footprint of the pyramid would have allowed a number of burials equal to 1000 acre of regular cemetery ground.[3] Willson said that "Not many centuries will pass away before it will not only be completely filled, but that another one will be required."[4]

The pyramid would have been faced with granite blocks, and had flights of stairs on every side, leading to an obelisk and astronomical observatory at the pyramid's peak.[3] The project would have cost around £7 million.[4] There were significant objections to the plan: the authorities were uncertain as to whether such massive weight could be supported by the land and many London residents objected to the concept as a "horrible abomination".[5] The pyramid was never built, and the need for it was supplanted by the creation of a ring of "garden cemeteries" around London. According to one source, the first was "George Frederick Carden's pioneering park cemetery, Kensal Green Cemetery, modeled after Paris's Père-Lachaise", and the second was Highgate Cemetery, designed by architect Stephen Geary, which opened in 1839.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kriston Capps (9 March 2015). "Now More Than Ever, London Needs a 'Death Pyramid'". Bloomberg.com. Citylab.
  2. ↑ "The landmark buildings that never were". BBC News. 24 July 2012.
  3. 1 2 Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. C. Knight & Company. 1834.
  4. 1 2 Loudon, John Claudius (1829). The Gardener's Magazine and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvement. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green. p. 214. Retrieved 26 October 2018. Metropolitan Sepulchre.
  5. ↑ "London's Pyramid of Death: The Most Ambitious Necropolis That Never Was". Medium (from Teatime History). 29 September 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  6. ↑ "Now More Than Ever, London Needs a 'Death Pyramid'". Bloomberg News. 9 March 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2023. Why the city should revive a 19th-century plan for an uptown necropolis, population 5 million.
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