Victorian attitude to death The Victorians had a very different
attitude to death from us. Many more people died at a younger
age, and the risk of dying before adulthood was very high. Among
the poor people disease spread quickly, living conditions were
unsanitary and there were none of the cures that we have for
disease and infection today. The wealthier classes also
succumbed to epidemics of flu and diphtheria. Today you might
find that death is a taboo subject, but the Victorians, as
Christians who held strong convictions about the eternal soul
and the resurrection of the body, embraced the subject of death.
This is possibly one reason why the tombs and mausoleums in the
Victorian cemeteries are so splendid and inventive, and the
families of the deceased would spend much more time visiting
them and enjoying the experience. Sir William Tite, who designed
the layout of the Norwood Cemetery and who is buried there in
the catacombs, intended to make it like a pleasure ground.
Cemeteries were often compared to