Burial Act 1852

Burial Act 1852[a]
Act of Parliament
coat of arms
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to amend the Laws concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis.
Citation15 & 16 Vict. c. 85
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent1 July 1852
Commencement1 July 1852[b]
Other legislation
Repeals/revokesMetropolitan Interments Act 1850
Amended by
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended
Text of the Burial Act 1852 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

Burial Act 1852[a] was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulated burials in the metropolitan areas of London, England. It repealed the Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 52), before it had been fully implemented, and reduced the powers of the General Board of Health to a regulatory role. The act permitted individual or groups of metropolitan vestries (as defined in schedule A) to set up burial boards that would purchase land to provide burial grounds.

Background

The Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 52) was based on the work and recommendations of Edwin Chadwick regarding burials.[1] It empowered the General Board of Health as a public burial body that could purchase eight existing large cemeteries around London.[c] It could buy land and open new cemeteries to provide a burial service for the Metropolitan Burial District. In the event, only one cemetery was purchased, that is now known as Brompton Cemetery.[3]

Provisions

The Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 52) was repealed. The powers of the General Board of Health were reduced to a regulatory role.[4]

Legacy

The Burial Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 134) extended the provisions to all of England outside London.[5]

The larger metropolitan vestries were incorporated as sanitary authorities in 1855. The remaining non-administrative vestries retained limited powers, including the ability to set up burial boards.[6]

Definition of the Metropolis

The area of the Metropolis of the purposes of the legislation was given in Schedule A:

  • In Middlesex:
  • In Kent:
  • In Surrey:

Notes

  1. 1 2 The citation of this act by this short title was authorised by section 5 of, and the second schedule to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1948. Due to the repeal of those provisions, it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
  2. ↑ The Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793.
  3. ↑ The legislation authorised the purchase of Highgate, Nunhead, Victoria Park, City of London and Tower Hamlets, West of London and Westminster, South Metropolitan, Kensal Green and Abney Park cemeteries.[2]
  4. ↑ Westminster and Duchy of Lancaster parts
  5. ↑ Westminster and Duchy of Lancaster parts
  6. ↑ Including St James and St John
  7. ↑ Part in Middlesex
  8. ↑ Not including Penge.
  9. ↑ Part of Deptford

References

  1. ↑ "Report on Intramural Interments". Cemetery Research Group. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  2. ↑ Cunningham Glen 1850, p. 5.
  3. ↑ "Metropolitan Interment Act". Cemetery Research Group. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  4. ↑ Rugg, Julie Joyce (2020) Nineteenth-century burial reform: a reappraisal. Histoire, Medecine et Sante. pp. 79-95.
  5. ↑ "1852: The first fully enacted Burial Act". Cemetery Research Group. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  6. ↑ The London Vestries (PDF). London: The Fabian Society. November 1894. Retrieved 5 January 2023.

Bibliography

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