London underground corpses line

Staring at some work day train travelers you might be forgiven for thinking that corpse trains are nothing new, in fact they describe quite a number of early morning and late night journeys I have been on.

But there is talk of a genuine corpse train and one that would chillingly grace any horror novel or movie.

Whitechapel, London

Photograph by Accent Studio

The world’s first underground railway system opened in London in 1863 and is now part of the Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Circle lines and it ran between Paddington (the called Bishop’s Rd) and Farringdon. This was also a time when deaths were commonplace in London’s hospitals.

This incredible new transportation breakthrough is thought to have been seized on for far more grim purposes than simply moving the living from one place to another.

The city’s morgues were filling up and there was less and less space to store bodies. Allegedly the idea was hit upon to install a new and dedicated line to ferry carriage loads of dead bodies into Whitechapel and store them in offices just yards from unknowing commuters.

This grotesque but curiously ingenious plan is probably not true, but it does brilliantly play on the fears of death, dark underground and the potential horrifying of the innocent and oblivious.