'Awe, Mystery and Wonder'

Undercliffe Cemetery, Undercliffe, Bradford, West Yorks. UK.


Undercliffe Cemetery in Bradford was opened in 1854 when Bradford had a population of about 103,000. It contains 24,000 graves with about with 124,000 burials on a 26 acre site.
Dr Julien Litten (an expert in funerary history) places Undercliffe at the zenith of British cemeteries. He calls it 'a place that evokes awe, mystery and wonder'.

I find it a vast and fascinating monument and insight into the enormous wealth generated in Bradford during the industrial revolution. Many of the powerful and wealthy of 19th century Bradford are interred here : the richest at the centre and descending in grandeur towards the periphery. It is crammed with hidden, half buried and enveloped burial structures whose words and motifs speak directly from the past.