London’s Dungeons- The Catacombs of West Norwood Cemetery

In crowded Victorian London, where can a conspiracy get some privacy? What building has the square footage necessary for a fiendish plot? The answer lies right under our feet.

The high population of London inevitably led to many corpses in need of burying, but few available graves. The cemeteries were full and to over fill them would be insanitary. Parliament accepted proposals banning burials inside the city of London and to build cemeteries outside town. These cemeteries became known as the “Magnificent Seven”.
Workmen cleared many trees of Westnorwood in Lambeth to clear land for a graveyard. Iron fences and gates surround the enclosed cemetery, discouraging resurrection men and grave robbers. Architect William Tite designed the mausoleums, memorials, and landscaping in the new Gothic style. The Cemetery opened in 1837.

In the Southeast Corner of Westnorwood Cemetery sits a small Episcopal church. A stone stairwell behind the church and another inside wind underground to a brick lined passage full of large alcoves: the central hallway of the cemeteries’ catacombs. Eights smaller passages lead out from the central hallway ending with iron grate covered air vents. Each hall is lined with fourteen alcoves, some full of shelves. The shelves hold the many coffins housed in the catacombs.
Space in the catacombs could be bought by shelf space, by shelf or by alcove. Only the rich could afford an entire shelf, and only the very rich would be able to buy an entire alcove (along with a set of iron fencing to protect the collected departed). If every shelf were filled, the catacombs would hold more than 3,000 coffins.
In 1839, Bramah and Robinson designed and installed a coffin lift (or catafalque) to help bring the departed to their final resting place. The lift is powered by two hydraulic pumps. Each stroke of the pump lifts the elevator one inch, to a maximum height of 15 feet through a covered hole in the chapel floor.

I don’t need to tell you what to do with a creepy Gothic catacomb full of recently buried bodies in your Victoriana campaign. It’s a fantastic location with atmosphere and a great layout for a fight. Here are some ideas that could affect the dungeon’s use:  

The Great North Wood
Before the town of West Norword, the area was known as the “Great North Wood”. Certain very old trees were left alone when the cemetery was built. Their roots may entangle something secret in the ground or they could have been left alone at the orders of someone higher up.
 Are the catacombs an access point for an ancient power of nature, or are the trees protecting something?  

Lead Lined Coffins
By law all burials not actually interred in the ground must be lined with lead for the sake of public health. In the damp, musty catacombs some of the older coffins have rotted, exposing the protective metal casing. Lead has a history of use in defensive magic. Does the lead protect the outside from what’s inside, or what’s inside from the outside?  

Hidden Marvels
The coffin lift is an interesting, if mundane, piece of engineering. Did Bramah and Robinson install more fantastic clockwork marvels? Does the elevator go down below the catacombs, through the solid seeming flagstone floor?  

Little Storage Rooms 
Bodies in the catacombs are quite secure from grave robbers. The outside fence, the locked church, the catacomb entrance, and the locked gate of the full alcoves all work to keep grabbing hands out. It’s not a bad place to hide a human sized secret, or a bunch of smaller secrets in a lead lined coffin.