The City of the Dead
The gateway to a new Liverpool park – Grant Gardens, on the corner of Everton Road and West Derby Road, pictured the day before the official opening by Alderman J.R. Grant on April 22, 1914.
The gardens occupied the site of Liverpool’s former Necropolis (City of the Dead), the grisly name given to the large cemetery laid out there in 1825.
For many years, the state of Liverpool’s cemeteries and churchyards were “over crowded” and unwholesome.
The churchyards of Our Lady and St Nicholas and St Peter’s were so full that old coffins were being removed to make way for new burials. St John’s (now the site of St John’s Gardens) largely intended for the interment of the poor, was in a similar condition, as were the yards of other town chapels.
To help alleviate this problem, in 1823 a company was formed to establish a cemetery for all sects and parties. And in February 1825, a field called Mill Hey was purchased from a Mr Plumpton.
He was a local landowner, whose former brickfield plot, known as “Plumpton’s Hollow” off West Derby Road, became Liverpool’s famous Zoological Gardens, closed in 1865.
The five-acre Mill Hey was laid out as the Necropolis. This was designed by Mr. John Foster. Its entrance and the main building, with pedimented gables linked by a massive Doric arcade, made a grand spectacle.
But no one seems to have recorded that this cemetery was only a stone’s throw from the well known Gregson’s Well!
The first person to be interred in the Necropolis was Mrs. Martha Hope. The service was performed by the Rev. Dr. Raffles.
On April 1, 1854, all interments in churchyards within town precincts were forbidden by order of the Town Council. This resulted in Anfield and Toxteth Cemeteries being laid out.
A discovery made in 1857 which created great public indignation, was the divulgence that, in several instances, remains in the Necropolis had been removed into common pits to make way for new burials.
A Government inquiry into this was held and the cemetery was closed for all interments except for those in family graves. It was closed permanently in 1898, under the Liverpool Corporation Act of that year.
Second Picture of Grant Gardens
In West Derby Road we take a look at the old Necropolis which was converted into a public garden.
The picture was taken in 1914 just after its opening. The gardens were named after Alderman J.R. Grant.
At the time the gardens were created out of the old cemetery, the old colonnade was removed, a new cutting made through into Everton Road and public conveniences erected opposite the Hippodrome.
