2-970-075 - /Heritage Images

Great Cemetery at Woking - general view, 1856. '… it was amongst the undulating levels to the south of London that the most fitting site would be found for a burial-ground commensurate with the needs of the metropolis...The extent of land possessed by the Necropolis Company is upwards of two thousand one hundred acres, more than four hundred of which, of most appropriate soil, are already set apart and used for burial purposes...its prevision in purchasing so vast a tract of land as shall meet the need of generations yet unborn, and the liberality and earnestness with which it has commenced the work of making this vast graveyard for London the most beautiful garden in the world - thus associating the solemnities of death with nature in her loveliest and purest aspects - must be commended by all those who see the foundations on which social progress and public morality truly rest'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.