It was originally built as an overspill cemetery amidst a period of mass deaths in the capital.
Now, Brookwood Cemetery in Woking, Surrey and become Britain's largest burial site - and is shrouded in myths and legends.
The cemetry is England's most expansive necropolis, or 'city of the dead'. It was at one point the largest in the world and even had its own railway station.
But despite this, the majority of graves interred by the Victorians were so-called 'paupers' graves' – many of which had no proper headstone.
Vast swathes of overgrown tombstones carpet the 220-acre site, where it is estimated some 235,000 souls have been laid to rest since it opened in the 1850s.
As thousands perished from cholera in Victorian London - caused primarily by the city's shocking housing conditions and dirty water - graveyards struggled to accommodate the influx of bodies.
And so the city looked to pastures new, with the austerely-titled London Necropolis Company (LNC) later opening the new site in 1854.
Around 80% of the people later buried by the LNC - most of whom were the poor or destitute - would be laid in unmarked graves.
Several large-scale monuments have been built in the huge expanse of land, including the creepy Columbarium mausoleum and the poignant war memorial, which looks out across the graves of 5,000 soldiers killed in WWI and WWII.
Brookwood has become the final resting place of household names over the years, including painter John Singer Sargent, Rupert the Bear creator Alfred Bestall, London Olympics architect Dame Zaha Hadid and occult writer Denis Wheatley, whose grave is frequently used for rituals.
Love interest of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed, was also buried there after the crash which killed them both in 1997. His body was later moved to the nearby Al-Fayed estate.
One of England's first ever monarchs, Edward the Martyr, is buried there after being moved from Shaftesbury Abbey, while one of the graves is ironically that of anatomist Robert Knox whose body supply came from notorious grave robbers Burke and Hare.
Macabre myths
Of course, Brookwood is not without its own myths. According to legend, American soldiers buried after WWI were exhumed and stripped of their valuables before being moved to a cemetery in the US.
Gold, jewellery and watches removed from the bodies were thought to have been looted from other soldiers during the war, and were said to have been re-buried in a secret 'gold grave'.
Efforts have been made to trace this over the years, although historians say there is no concrete evidence it ever existed.
On Halloween nights, many witnesses have reported seeing dark, robed figures wandering through the tombs. Whether the figures are from the world of the living or the dead, however, is unknown.
Museum of Death
In 2020, Woking Council approved plans to establish a 'Museum of Death' at Brookwood.
The attraction will help pull in more visitors to the Grade-I listed cemetery to learn about its history and the many common causes of death during the Victorian era.
A new site has also been outlined for more burial space at Brookwood, with bodies due to be excavated from St James's Garden in Euston to make room for HS2 construction.
