Under London: Exploring the city's Gothic past at West Norwood

  • London
The West Norwood cemetery has thousands of interments in its catacombs. Credit: ITV News.

For most of us, going underground in London consists only of sweaty journeys on the tube.

But away from the commute more and more people are exploring the unusual spaces beneath our feet.

In the first of a new series exploring what's under London - Martin Stew visited the other catacombs in West Norwood cemetery with historian Colin Fenn to get a unique glimpse into our gothic past.

The cemetery itself is one of the oldest in London, and was opened by an Act of Parliament in 1836.

The catacombs consist of a wide corridor, which had its own coffin lift, or 'catafalque' as it was called, installed in 1839.

No coffins have been interred since the 1930s, and the catacombs suffered bomb damage during World War Two.