Grave concerns: the disposal of London's dead
Friday 1 September - Sunday 29 October 2000

This Capital concerns display explored issues we would rather not face and asked the question - what will happen to our bodies when we die?

London is running out of burial space. Inner London boroughs have on average seven years' burial space left. Two of them, Hackney and Tower Hamlets, have no space left at all. With intense competition for space, do we still have room for the dead, and if so, where?

Objects on display explored the many facets of our attitudes to death. They ranged from an Early Bronze Age cremation urn and recently excavated Roman grave goods to an environmentally friendly contemporary cardboard coffin. Photographs of crematorium interiors and oral recordings of people involved in the disposal of the dead offered insight into professions rarely discussed in public.

How should Londoners dispose of their dead? People came and aired their views at a debate on 6 September, when the motion was: 'Must London face up to reusing graves?'