A Garden Built on Bones | St. James Cemetery, Liverpool cover art

A Garden Built on Bones | St. James Cemetery, Liverpool

A Garden Built on Bones | St. James Cemetery, Liverpool

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

What happens when a cemetery built to honor the dead becomes their greatest indignity? St. James Cemetery in Liverpool was designed as a modern answer to Victorian burial chaos—but instead recreated every horror it promised to solve. Now 57,000 souls lie beneath what's officially called a public park, their gravestones cleared away, their names reduced to lists on communal stones.

Host Kristin descends into this haunted quarry-turned-cemetery to uncover the stories of those buried within: Sarah Biffin, the armless artist who painted for royalty with her teeth; Arthur Richardson, a forgotten Victoria Cross hero who saved a man's life under gunfire; William Huskisson, the politician killed by the world's first railway; and Lucy Walker, who became the first woman to summit the Matterhorn in a white dress.

But the dead of St. James may not rest quietly. From Huskisson's limping ghost to the mysterious Christmas Vampire, paranormal reports have haunted these grounds for decades. When a cemetery strips away the names of the poor while preserving monuments for the wealthy, do the forgotten ever truly find peace?

A story of progress, exploitation, erasure, and the souls left behind.

Support the show

Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes

Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia

No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.