When the bubonic plague broke out in London in 1665, the inhabitants of the city were horrified again. This was not the first time Londoners had to prepare for an ordeal. But this time they faced one of the worst and infamous outbreaks in history. The bubonic plague destroyed one fifth of the city's population (approximately 100 thousand people).
Mass graves
The horror of this epidemic was described in detail by contemporaries. The dead were buried in the so-called plague pits. The ground throughout the city was dotted with relatively shallow burials. There were no coffins or farewell funerals. Hundreds of lifeless bodies were dumped into one large grave. Two hundred years later, the world's first underground station was put into operation in London.
In 1863, only a few stations operated, connecting the two largest railway stations. But if you manage to look at the diagram of the first London Underground line, you will notice something strange. The stations were not connected by straight lines. All the paths between points were winding. It was as if the people plotting the route were deliberately trying to avoid encountering a dangerous object.
The layout of the first metro line gave rise to a lot of rumors
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The mysteries of the underground in London are an extremely interesting topic of conversation. There is an opinion that the whole history of the old city with its mysterious myths and legends is hidden there. Knowing that there were numerous burial grounds for victims of the bubonic plague underground, people suspected that every day, going to the subway, they might encounter the shadows of the past. Do these rumors have official scientific confirmation?
A detailed study of the route map will not take much time. When engineers first started designing subway tracks, they deliberately tried to avoid encountering 17th century burial grounds. Perhaps the designers did not want to disturb the remains of the dead, or perhaps the bodies of the buried were placed too tightly to each other.
Opinion "for"
This is what Katharina Arnold wrote in her book Necropolis: London and His Deaths: “At the intersection of Brompton Road and Knightsbridge, while excavating a subway line, workers came across a pit with human remains. This forced them to interrupt work and leave the tunnel incomplete. According to contemporaries, it was this circumstance that led to the curved nature of the route between the two stations.
Other sources referred to maps of the location of the plague pits. According to some experts, there is a burial ground under the famous Elephant and Castle transport junction, and the Victoria line crosses the pit directly under Green Park. This is also stated by Peter Ackroyd in his book "Underground London", which was published in 2012. According to the author, the underground system of the city passes through many burial grounds and plague pits.
Rumors and speculation
Many people believe that these pits are scattered throughout the city. But could plague pits or other graves really affect the layout of the London Underground? Most likely, the answer to this question is negative. Some experts believe the remains, if found, could have been pushed off the road. The reburial of the plague bones was not beneficial to the local authorities.
The opinion of historians of the British capital
And now let's take an interest in the opinion of professional London historians. Here is what the historian and writer Mike Horn says: "In all the documents that have passed through my hands, there was no evidence that real or imagined plague pits influenced the construction of the London Underground."
And here is the opinion of the writer Scott Wood: "I contacted the archives of the transport communication, where I was assured that there are no specific references to the presence of grave pits on the subway lines." According to the expert, the Victoria line, as well as the Fleet line, is completely clean of mass graves of the 17th century. Archival records of the first lines of the London Underground in the 19th century also do not mention any notorious finds. Transport expert Christian Wolmar claims that no corpses have been found.
The real reason for the curvature of the route
So why are these routes so curved? Historians themselves answer this question. The point here is clearly not in burial grounds and pits. The curvature of the route is limited by the cost. The design of the tunnels strikingly repeats the scheme of the elevated streets that existed at that time. Thus, developers avoided conflicts with landowners. Otherwise, the private property affected by the construction must be bought out by the railway company.