Page "London Necropolis Company" Paragraph 3

Cremation remained unusual and very expensive ; the cost of a cremation at Woking was £ 6, not including transport and funeral costs, more than twice the £ 2 10s cost of a first class burial at Brookwood.

By 1891 only 177 people had been cremated at Woking.

Cyril Tubbs recognised that a potential increase in cremations once the practice became accepted represented an opportunity for the LNC.

In July 1891 he proposed that the LNC build its own crematorium and columbarium ( building for the storage of cremated remains ) within the cemetery, with the ultimate goal of taking over all funeral arrangements for the Cremation Society.

The Cremation Society were keen to prevent a competitor to Woking Crematorium, and sought to cooperate with the LNC.

The fares for the transport of mourners and coffins on the London Necropolis Railway had been fixed by Parliament in 1852 at 6s for a living first class passenger and £ 1 for a first class coffin ( in 1891 worth about £ and £ respectively in consumer terms ).

Rival firms of undertakers were not permitted to use the LNC's trains to Brookwood Cemetery and had to pay the much more expensive LSWR fares to transport coffins and mourners from Waterloo to Woking, giving the LNC a significant advantage in carriage to the crematorium.

While the LNC never built its own crematorium, in 1910 Lord Cadogan decided he no longer wanted to be interred in the mausoleum he had commissioned at Brookwood.

This building, the largest mausoleum in the cemetery, was bought by the LNC, fitted with shelves and niches to hold urns, and used as a dedicated columbarium from then on.