Troubled proximities: asylums cemeteries in nineteenth-century England.
Asylums and cemeteries in nineteenth-century England were kindred spirits in the anxiety and exclusionary impulses that they engendered, leading them to be similarly exiled from nineteenth-century urban areas. They were uneasy 'neighbours', however, with contemporary authorities condemning the proximity of cemeteries to asylums on medical and moral grounds. The appearance at many asylums after mid-century of a burial-ground for deceased residents, usually located on an asylum's own estate, was often criticized on grounds similar to those raised with respect to neighbouring parochial burial-grounds. Other objections arose to the 'exclusivity' of asylum-based burials, with off-site burial arrangements clearly being favoured. One consequence was that on-site asylum cemeteries ended up being treated as unwelcome occupants of asylum estates, hidden away as an embarrassment, creating a legacy of anonymity still generating concerns in the present.
School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK. Christopher.Philo@glasgow.ac.uk
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D002048:Burial / Q000266:history*; D055699:Cemeteries / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history*; D011639:Public Opinion / Q000266:history*