CHAPTER II REALITY The ideals of religious practices are not always a truthful representation of reality. Ordinarily, steps are taken prior to the rites of passage. In the United Kingdom, documents are required to obtain the body for the funeral. These documents are required by law to correctly register the death. Therefore, precede the religious customs of the rites of passage in the United Kingdom. The ideals of death painted by faith customs only comes to realisation if one was fortunate in having particular circumstances favouring a quick release of the body. This is an example of how the realities of death do not always equate to the ideals. Whilst religious teachings primarily focused on the existential concerns for death, it neglects the reality and its physical impact to its surroundings.
It is clear that reformation of cemetery traditions is needed. However, London is not estranged to evolving its burial strategies, the Victorian era saw drastic changes to the planning of the city to provide burial space for the growing population. This era brought forth urban garden cemeteries that are still a part of the city’s infrastructure. I will reference James Stevens Curl’s book, ‘Death and Architecture’, to analyse this era and question whether we should be more like the Victorians and take radical measures to address this crisis?
This chapter will investigate the realities of cemeteries by looking into the particulars of the provisions currently available in London. I will do this by primarily referencing the research reports and interviews of Dr Julie Rugg. This will give an overview of the amount of space available whilst expressing the challenges that the funeral industry is dealing with this issue of land scarcity. Having established in the previous chapter that particular religions, Islam and Judaism, are strictly bound to the traditional means of burial, it is likely that they face tough obstacles in continuing their funeral practices. In this chapter I will follow up on how these religious groups are keeping up with the demands whilst there is a shortage of space. There is a big discrepancy where public cemeteries, owned by the local authorities, are becoming abandoned and privately owned cemeteries are highly active. To examine this phenomenon, I set out to visit cemeteries and crematoriums belonging to the private and public sector to note the contributing factors that led to this.
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