Theme: Archives- Architecture and After life.

Architecture and afterlife

What happens after crypts where sealed from the burial acts?

The text addresses the rise of cemeteries in the United States. Which in a way is similar to the UK, that started when there was a prohibition for interments in the city, that lead to the creation of new cemeteries.

Philadelphia laurel hill

Highgate Cemetery

It is interesting to see the cultural mindset and stigma surrounding burial grounds in the UK and the US, and how similar their history is. How people’s relationship with cemeteries and afterlife has evolved, and how they have risen to become symbolic public spaces.

People evolved from being buried in a churchyard or crypt to a more open public space. Churchyards and crypts used to be more selective on who was allowed to be buried there, and a social hierarchy was enforced. Only wealthy parishes and family members were allowed to be buried at the crypt while everyone else at the churchyard. In contrast, to cemeteries where there is no social hierarchy and everyone is entitled to be buried.

Crypts and churchyards charged high amounts of money to churchgoers to bury their family members even though they were periodically cleared and remains moved to the Charnel house and ossuaries such as St.Brides in Fleet Street. Although the cemeteries never attracted the middle class.

Charnel house, In St. Bride's Church.

Architecture and afterlife, how these places were considered sacred and symbolic. The changes in attitude about death and burial grounds were imperative for the emergence of cemeteries.

Ideas about the nature of the church and the place of men in society created a shift in people’s minds. People started to preserve the individual identity of the dead instead of being influenced by religion.

In conclusion

After analysing the evolution of cemeteries in both the United States and the United Kingdom, one can say that social behaviour and the context of the location directly affect this progression. After taking a look at their separate histories, several similar factors stood out. For sanitary reasons, both countries developed similar burial acts that changed the structure and rules of all burial grounds. Both countries had to think of solutions to the problem of the increasing population in churchyards, crypts and vaults. This change came about with the overcrowded putrifying bodies that were being disturbed often to make room for newcomers. The Clergymen and sextons turned a blind eye to these practices since the fees for these burials were a substantial part of their income.

Annotated Biography

Hall, P. D. (1993) ‘Architecture and the After-Life’, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 22(2), pp. 167–183.

The author addresses the rise of cemeteries in Europe and the United Kingdom. When they prohibit interments in the city, the creation of cemeteries began. He then expresses a shift in the public’s mentality regarding burial grounds and shows the similarities in the history of cemeteries both in the US and UK. This shift began in the U.S. and was a consequence of the Enlightenment Movement. They wanted to break from the traditional European ideas about reform and started to look at the possibilities of cemeteries as a well-thought-out space. Which Europe and the UK quickly caught up on, and followed. People started visualising cemeteries as a public space, with a new representation of values in the civic culture. At some point, at the beginning of the 20th century the focus of cemeteries went from being about the public space itself to be a commercial entity and its monetary value.